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Genetic Analysis of Snow Leopard Population Employing Next Generation Sequencing For Its Improved Conservation And Management

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2020, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, Environmental Sciences PhD.
Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are an enigmatic, high-altitude species whose challenging habitat, low population densities and patchy distribution have presented challenges for scientists studying its biology, population structure, and genetics. To address these important ecological, conservation, and evolutionary questions, scientists are tailoring laboratory and computational methods to better extract the information from non-invasive samples, only available source of DNA for this species. These samples with very low quantity and quality of DNA, present unique methodological challenges. ddRAD-seq, one of next generation sequencing method is used here to develop reference sequence library for snow leopard using five blood samples from Mongolian snow leopards. 697 SNPs are identified through this method. This genetic data from ddRAD-seq will be invaluable for conducting population and landscape scale studies that can inform snow leopard conservation strategies. Then probes are designed for target DNA capture, a widely used method for studying low quality and quantity of DNA from ancient DNA samples, eDNA, and forensics, using developed ddRAD-seq reference sequence library. Non-invasive fecal scats of snow leopards from seven different countries are used for target DNA capture. In addition to target DNA, high number of non-targeted mtDNA of snow leopard and prey species are also obtained. This non-targeted DNA is used to identify prey species in snow leopard scats that are collected from different regions/locations. 3369 bp of snow leopard mtDNA are used to identify 22 parsimony informative sites that can be useful for future mitochondrial gene-based population genetics and structure studies of snow leopards.
Thomas P. Rooney, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Jeffrey L. Peters, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Fakhar-i- Abbas, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Byron Weckworth, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Volker Bahn, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
142 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Janjua, S. (2020). Genetic Analysis of Snow Leopard Population Employing Next Generation Sequencing For Its Improved Conservation And Management [Doctoral dissertation, Wright State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1598870693394148

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Janjua, Safia. Genetic Analysis of Snow Leopard Population Employing Next Generation Sequencing For Its Improved Conservation And Management. 2020. Wright State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1598870693394148.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Janjua, Safia. "Genetic Analysis of Snow Leopard Population Employing Next Generation Sequencing For Its Improved Conservation And Management." Doctoral dissertation, Wright State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1598870693394148

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)