Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Arizona
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Arizona Project


Developing SNP Markers in Pumas for Genome-Wide Association Study and Population Genetics

January 2011 - December 2015


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Arizona Game & Fish Dept.

We will use 454 (Next Generation) sequencing of expressed transcripts in several Arizona puma populations to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Because pumas in North America have suffered a continent-wide founder effect, genetic variation at microsatellite loci is found at lower levels than their South American counterparts. Also, microsatellites cannot address the question of selection across the genome. After genotyping many individuals for selected SNPs, we will be addressing two issues: 1) characterizing selection on the puma correlated with a recent radiation into the Kofa region of the Sonoran Desert and 2) defining the origin of the Kofa population in the Sonoran Desert.