1. Sex, Death and Secret Identities Roles for genetics in conservation Alyssa Mitchell

2. What is Conservation Genetics ? Integrative Variation Intra & inter population

3. Effective Population Size Adaptability is related to variability Hunted to near extinction 20-30 left 175 000 now Ne = 60 What does this mean for them ?

4. Breeding Inbreeding Mating vs breeding Blanding ’ s Turtles are promiscuous, but only about 5% of males are producing offspring !

5. Hybrids Increase in variation Dilute deleterious alleles Florida panthers got a little help from Texas cougars

6. How do we know ?? In this case, all it takes is a karyotype !

7. Who meets ? Who mates ? And who cares ???

8. Microsatellites Simple - sequence tandem repeats Highly variable & mutable Locus - specific Highly heterozygous Biparental nuclear variation CACACACACACACACACACACACACA …

9. Many genes are highly conserved ( Usually ) Uniparental & matrilineal variation Species ID & phylogeny Operation Shrew Poo !

10. Nova Scotian Shrews Nova Scotia is home to seven species of shrews, most of which are sympatric. Sorex cinereus is the common shrew, found in most of the province, including some islands. Sorex fumeus is known as the smokey shrew, and smells worse than any other !

11. Nova Scotian Shrews Sorex dispar is a talis slope specialist Sorex hoyi is the American pygmy shrew & among the smallest land mammals in the world Blarina brevicauda is a short - tailed shrew with a venomous saliva that seems to have anti - cancer properties.

12. Sorex Palustrius American water shrew One of the only species to dive & forage in water. Not endangered overall

13. Sorex maritimensis Maritime shrew Endemic Likely endangered Recently elevated to species status

14. The Goal To determine the distribution of these two species of shrews in Nova Scotia Data points few & far between

15. General Characteristics of Shrews Very low body weight for land mammals High metabolism Easily stressed Can be scared to death Most active at night

16. Obstacles to Research Trapping Identifying Holding in captivity

17. Dr. Churchfield to the Rescue Dr. J Sara Churchfield ’ s Water Shrew Survey UK Mammal Society Amassed volunteers & collected scats Used scat morphology Volunteers submitted reports

18. Fecal DNA & Molecular Markers Two students developed some species - specific primers & an RFLP - based protocol Mitochondrial DNA : more copies, well - known cytochrome b gene

19. Fecal DNA & Molecular Markers What happened ?? DNA quality New protocol !

21. BamHI cuts Sorex palustris only XbaI cuts Sorex maritimensis only Much easier to amplify 100 & 200 bp fragments indicate that a cut site has been recognized

22. Forensics What is it, and where did it come from ? CSI : WhaleCSI : Whale

23. Avoid inbreeding Encourage specific alleles

24. Out of danger ID a threat Increase genetic variation