Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)

ABSTRACT The jaguar (Panthera onca) is an iconic top predator that is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, along with an emerging expansion of poaching for the illegal trade of live individuals and their parts. To address the need for tools that improve surveillance and monitoring of its re...

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Main Authors: Gabriele Zenato Lazzari, Henrique Vieira Figueiró, Caroline Charão Sartor, Emiliano Donadio, Sebastián Di Martino, Hope M. Draheim, Eduardo Eizirik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-05-01
Series:Ecology and Evolution
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71465
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author Gabriele Zenato Lazzari
Henrique Vieira Figueiró
Caroline Charão Sartor
Emiliano Donadio
Sebastián Di Martino
Hope M. Draheim
Eduardo Eizirik
author_facet Gabriele Zenato Lazzari
Henrique Vieira Figueiró
Caroline Charão Sartor
Emiliano Donadio
Sebastián Di Martino
Hope M. Draheim
Eduardo Eizirik
author_sort Gabriele Zenato Lazzari
collection DOAJ
description ABSTRACT The jaguar (Panthera onca) is an iconic top predator that is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, along with an emerging expansion of poaching for the illegal trade of live individuals and their parts. To address the need for tools that improve surveillance and monitoring of its remaining populations, we have developed a genome‐enabled single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel targeting this species. From a dataset of 58 complete jaguar genomes, we identified and selected highly informative SNPs for geographic traceability, individual identification, kinship, and sexing. Our panel, named “Jag‐SNP”, comprises 459 SNPs selected from an initial pool of 13,373,949 markers based on the inter‐biome FST, followed by rigorous filtering and addition of eight sex‐linked SNPs. We then randomly selected subsets of this panel and identified an 84‐SNP set that exhibited a similar resolving power. With both the 459‐SNP panel and its 84‐SNP subset, samples were assigned with 98% success to their biomes of origin and 65%–69% of them were assigned to within 500 km of their origin. Furthermore, ca. 10–18 SNPs within these panels were sufficient to distinguish individuals, whereas 6 sex‐linked SNPs perfectly separated males and females. We used whole‐genome data from an additional 18 jaguars to further test these panels, which provided insights into kinship relationships and allowed inference of geographic origin of samples collected outside the spatial scope of the original sample set. These results support the strong potential of these panels as an efficient tool for application in forensic, genetic, ecological, behavioral and conservation projects targeting jaguars.
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spelling doaj-art-e488fd4d44264d1892a3a034345dfa7d2025-08-20T03:10:09ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582025-05-01155n/an/a10.1002/ece3.71465Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)Gabriele Zenato Lazzari0Henrique Vieira Figueiró1Caroline Charão Sartor2Emiliano Donadio3Sebastián Di Martino4Hope M. Draheim5Eduardo Eizirik6Laboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) Porto Alegre RS BrazilLaboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) Porto Alegre RS BrazilLaboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) Porto Alegre RS BrazilFundación Rewilding Argentina Buenos Aires ArgentinaFundación Rewilding Argentina Buenos Aires ArgentinaNational Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory United States Fish and Wildlife Service Ashland Oregon USALaboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) Porto Alegre RS BrazilABSTRACT The jaguar (Panthera onca) is an iconic top predator that is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, along with an emerging expansion of poaching for the illegal trade of live individuals and their parts. To address the need for tools that improve surveillance and monitoring of its remaining populations, we have developed a genome‐enabled single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel targeting this species. From a dataset of 58 complete jaguar genomes, we identified and selected highly informative SNPs for geographic traceability, individual identification, kinship, and sexing. Our panel, named “Jag‐SNP”, comprises 459 SNPs selected from an initial pool of 13,373,949 markers based on the inter‐biome FST, followed by rigorous filtering and addition of eight sex‐linked SNPs. We then randomly selected subsets of this panel and identified an 84‐SNP set that exhibited a similar resolving power. With both the 459‐SNP panel and its 84‐SNP subset, samples were assigned with 98% success to their biomes of origin and 65%–69% of them were assigned to within 500 km of their origin. Furthermore, ca. 10–18 SNPs within these panels were sufficient to distinguish individuals, whereas 6 sex‐linked SNPs perfectly separated males and females. We used whole‐genome data from an additional 18 jaguars to further test these panels, which provided insights into kinship relationships and allowed inference of geographic origin of samples collected outside the spatial scope of the original sample set. These results support the strong potential of these panels as an efficient tool for application in forensic, genetic, ecological, behavioral and conservation projects targeting jaguars.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71465genômica da conservaçãomanejo genéticoidentificação individualsexagemparentesco
spellingShingle Gabriele Zenato Lazzari
Henrique Vieira Figueiró
Caroline Charão Sartor
Emiliano Donadio
Sebastián Di Martino
Hope M. Draheim
Eduardo Eizirik
Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
Ecology and Evolution
genômica da conservação
manejo genético
identificação individual
sexagem
parentesco
title Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
title_full Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
title_fullStr Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
title_full_unstemmed Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
title_short Development of a SNP Panel for Geographic Assignment and Population Monitoring of Jaguars (Panthera onca)
title_sort development of a snp panel for geographic assignment and population monitoring of jaguars panthera onca
topic genômica da conservação
manejo genético
identificação individual
sexagem
parentesco
url https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71465
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