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With their gray tramps and adorable faces, koalas are one of Australia's most iconic megafaunes. A new article published today in Nature Genetics documents genome sequencing of the creature. Entering the genes of the koala provides researchers with insight into how it survives its (toxic) eucalyptus diet, and will help them find out how to save this endangered cute. The results of the paper show why having a complete genome for endangered animals can help shape conservation decisions.
Rebecca Johnson, founder of the Australian Center for Wild Genomics and author of the new document, says the genome of the koala is a priority. Few reasons: it's one of Australia's most recognizable animals, its everyday life is only a little understood and it's threatened by threats that have not yet been completely understood or controlled.
"Koalas are an iconic marsupial mammal" Rachel O'Neill, a biologist from the University of Connecticut and author of Paper, Popular Science in an email. Because they're so recognizable, they're a great species to use to educate people about things like genomics conservation, she writes. The effort of sequencing the genome also has direct conservation implications. The two main threats to koalas: a distributed population and disease can be promoted by a better understanding of their genes.
Estimates of the current population of koalas range from 100,000 to 600,000, says Johnson. Throughout their range, koalas vary in size and color, which at one point classified them into three different species. But despite these phenotypic differences, she says, analysis of koala genes across their range shows that they are a species after all.
Because of their wide distribution, she says, "They are really complicated to manage from the point of view of conservation. "The koalas found in southern Australia have a high rate of consanguinity, but a large population.This situation is very different from that of northerners, where 'they are constantly losing habitat or animals. roads built by their populations, "she says, but" they are genetically very diverse up there. "
Seeing them from the perspective of genomics offers new opportunities for conservation, she says. genetic diversity in the south becomes sufficiently weak and can not be solved in other ways, for example, Johnson says that it could be possible to introduce genetic diversity using koalas from the north. Florida panther and the Tasmanian devil both benefited from this type of intervention
.But the goals of the team go beyond the relatively simple genetic analysis required to assess diversity. genetic among the popul "Because they are such a specialized animal, [and] they have such specialized adaptations, we just thought it would provide some really interesting insights into how koalas are koalas," says Johnson.
Fuzzy gray quadrupeds, unrelated to bears despite their common names, are unique among marsupials. Their closest modern relative is the wombat, but koalas and wombats have diverged genetically millions of years ago. At that time, koalas scaled trees and learned to eat something that almost no other creature eats: eucalyptus
"By taste and smell, the koala also has the ability to eat. 39; evaluate the leaves on the basis of bitterness. It is assumed that they use these discriminatory powers to choose accordingly, "the geneticist James Andrew Woody, who has not been involved in the & # 39; 39, study, wrote in an email to Popular Science
Although eucalyptus animals, koalas evolved to survive mainly from its leaves – according to the website of the 39 Australian environmental agency, koalas eat the equivalent of a small lettuce head that is worth every day. Koala guts contain specific microbes that help with this process, but the study shows that they also have more genes related to the production of detoxifying enzymes that help with digestion than most animals. Koalas also draw much of their water from the leaves they eat: by looking at the genome, the researchers have identified how they select the juiciest targets by using the odor and taste receptors. All this information will help them understand how to help the koala survive
In addition to habitat loss, dangerous people and dogs, and possible genetic bottlenecks, koalas are faced with two more Threats: Chlamydia, which probably entered their population. domesticated sheep, and the Koala retrovirus. Understanding the genes that underlie their responses to treatment may help researchers develop an effective method to combat these diseases.
"The long-term survival of the species depends on understanding the impacts of the disease and managing genetic diversity. Woody says the paper results highlight that "like most vertebrates, we need large koala populations to maintain genetic diversity and these must be connected via habitat corridors." encourage natural gene flow. "
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