Genetic road map offers hope for threatened Visayan spotted deer

Researchers at Silliman University and the Philippine Genome Center Visayas have sequenced the first draft genome of the Visayan spotted deer, a species reduced to about 700 mature individuals on two Philippine islands. The sample came from Abraham, a captive deer whose heterozygosity score of 0.17 came in far below the 0.3 typical of healthy wild populations, confirming decades of inbreeding in the captive colony.

Despite the grim baseline, biologist Persie Mark Sienes identified a rare allele in one still-active individual that could help diversify future breeding. Silliman biologist Robert Guino-o said the finding will push the center toward genome-based breeding protocols instead of pedigree tracing alone.

The researchers also want to resume deer exchanges between captive facilities, last done in 2007, and eventually test mixing captive and wild deer at the Bayawan Nature Reserve.

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