Numerous studies have been conducted on the endangered species that we know as “Mountain Gorillas” and the latest study on them has presented with insights regarding their habits of inbreeding and conservation.
This particular study has sequenced the whole genome of the mountain gorilla and has revealed their genetic impacts.
Co-author of this study, Chris Tyler-Smith from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has said “Mountain gorillas are among the most intensively studied primates in the wild, but this is the first in-depth, whole-genome analysis, three years on from sequencing the gorilla reference genome, we can now compare the genomes of all gorilla populations, including the critically endangered mountain gorilla, and begin to understand their similarities and differences, and the genetic impact of inbreeding.”
Mostly because of habitat destruction and hunting, the population of mountain gorillas have come down to only 253 in the Virunga volcanic mountain range, located along the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1980s.
Ever since that time, the conservative have administered and tried to get the population to increase to 480.
The researchers were keen on studying to find if amongst this small populace of gorillas any genetic mutation have taken place. The researchers were surprised to find out that a number of harmful mutations were actually removed.
Co-author from the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, Aylwyn Scally, said, “This new understanding of genetic diversity and demographic history among gorilla populations provides us with valuable insight into how apes and humans, their closely related cousins, adapt genetically to living in small populations, in these data we can observe the process by which genomes are purged of severely deleterious mutations by a small population size.”
Over several years of time, researchers have collected the blood samples of gorilla and have sequenced the entire genome of 7 mountain gorillas.
The researchers found that these gorillas were actually 2 to 3 times less genetically diverse in comparison to other gorilla population that inhabit in the central and western parts of Africa.
It has also been found through this research that gorillas have actually been surviving in small population over thousands of years now.
The researchers have been anxious that the drop in population in the 1980s was not a good sign for the gorillas but the new study has disclosed that for thousands of years now, they have been surviving in small population.
The results of the research were published in the journal Science.
