SREL Reprint #2604

Refining the Whooping Crane studbook by incorporating microsatellite DNA and leg-banding analyses

Kenneth L. Jones1,6, Travis C. Glenn2, Robert C. Lacy3, James R. Pierce4, Natalie Unruh5, Claire M. Mirande6, and Felipe Chavez-Ramirez1

1Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Campus Box 218, Kingsville, TX 78363, U.S.A.
2Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, U.S.A., and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, U.S.A.
3Department of Conservation Biology, Daniel F. & Ada L. Rice Center, Chicago Zoological Society,
3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, IL 60513, U.S.A.
4Department of Biology, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Campus Box 158, Kingsville, TX 78363, U.S.A.
5Gene Technologies Laboratory, Department of Biology, Biological Sciences Building West, Room 437,
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A.
6lnternational Crane Foundation, E-11376 Shady Lane Road, Baraboo, WI 53913, U.S.A.

Abstract: We sought to refine genetic management of the endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana) population by developing comprehensive genetic pedigrees for the captive population. Improvements to the studbook were accomplished by addition pedigree information derived from leg-banding data on wild juvenile and founder similarity coefficients calculated from microsatellite DNA profiles to the original studbook pedigree. Incorporation of pedigrees derived from data on leg-banding of wild juveniles did not greatly alter the previous relatedness structure of the captive population, but incorporation of microsatellite similarity coefficients produced a substantially different view of the population structure. Microsatellite data provided new information on shared founder genotypes and provided a new DNA-based studbook pedigree that will assist in genetic management of the Whooping Crane population.

SREL Reprint #2604

Jones, K. L., T. C. Glenn, R. C. Lacy, J. R. Pierce, N. Unruh, C. M. Mirande, and F. Chavez-Ramirez. 2002. Refining the Whooping Crane studbook by incorporating microsatellite DNA and leg-banding analyses. Conservation Biology 16:789-799.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).