“Inbreeding causes mutations of endangered gorillas”
“Låglandsgorillorna in the eastern democratic republic of Congo has been reduced by 80 percent in the last 20 years. Now, says researchers in Sweden and Spain to the reduction made to the gorillas lost a large part of its genetic variation. Results: inbreeding and genetic damage.”
“Låglandsgorillorna in the Congo-Kinshasa is one of two subspecies within the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei).”
“It is classified as critically endangered on the international as the red list since the inventories showed that the population declined from 17,000 to just 3 800 individuals since the turn of the millennium.”
“the Researchers behind the new study, published in Current Biology, has compared dna from living animals with dna from up to 100 years old museiexemplar.”
“They state that much of the subspecies genetic variation has been lost. Inbreeding has increased and mutations that are likely to be harmful has become more the last 4-5 generations. This explains probably why some gorillas nowadays are born with fused fingers and toes.”
“the Other mutations were found in genes that affect the fertility of males.”
“the Conclusion is that the eastern låglandsgorillan has lost a large part of their ability to meet future changes in the environment.”
“– To such harmful mutations increased in the number of stresses really need to stop the ongoing populationsminskningen, ” says Love Dalén, an evolutionary biologist at the state museum in Stockholm, and one of the leaders behind the study.”
“the Scientists also investigated the genetic condition of the famous mountain gorilla in east central Africa.”
“Oddly enough, these, unlike låglandsgorillorna, not to have undergone any major genetic changes in the last 100 years – despite the fact that the overall population is only a little over 1 000 individuals.”
“the Reason is possibly that the mountain gorilla naturally been rare for a very long time, several thousand years. Harmful mutations can be purged by natural selection as a result of the low number.”
“There are two species of gorillas in Africa, the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) in the eastern democratic republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) in west central Africa.”
“The eastern species includes two subspecies, mountain gorillas with a strain of a little over 1 000 individuals and eastern låglandsgorillan with approximately 3,800 individuals.”
“The western species includes two subspecies, partly Cross River gorilla at the border between Nigeria and Cameroon with a tribe of approximately 300 individuals, both the western låglandsgorillan with a population of 362 000 individuals, which represent 99% of all gorillas in Africa.”
“Source: Science Advances, IUCN, WWF”
