Australian sea lion

The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) is an endemic pinniped (seals, sea lions) in Australia

They are listed as vulnerable (EPBC) and endangered (IUCN).

There is an estimated 15 000 individuals spread across 80 colonies, two of the largest are Seal Bay (~250 pups born each breeding season) and Dangerous Reef (~500 pups born each breeding season) in South Australia. Sea lions suffer from high risk of fishry by-catch and high pup mortality. One of the major cause of Australian sea lion pup death is hookworms that cause haemorrhagic enteritis. Currently, the Australian sea lion populations are not recovering.

(c) Alan Marcus

STUDY OF MHC CLASS II GENETIC DIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIAN SEA LION PUPS

In Australian sea lion pups, we performed a study looking at an important immune gene called Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)

We looked at two colonies (Seal Bay and Dangerous Reef) which differ in environment, samples collected between 2007 -2010 (Project led by Rachael Gray and Damien Higgins).

Seal Bay, sandy substrate (n =20 pups) Dangerous Reef, rocky substrate (n= 27 pups)

(c) Alan Marcus

MHCII Diversity

-We characterised DQB and DRB exon 2 (214bp, 268 bp) using PCR, cloning + sequencing, and one-strand conformational polymorphism assay.

-We wanted to see if there were differences in MHCII genetic diversity between the 2 colonies related to variation in environments.

Results