Surprisingly, Inbred Isle Royale Wolves Dwindle Because of Fewer - but More Highly Expressed - Harmful Genes (2 of 2) (IMAGE)
Caption
Photograph of the remaining male-female pair of Isle Royale wolves in 2015 with an offspring (3rd in line, on the left) that was visibly deformed - its tail had an unusual twist to it. The posture of the pup did not appear normal (humped appearance), and it is thought to have died by 9 months of age. These wolves were not part of our study but are closely related to individuals that were. The wolves in the middle and the far right are still alive, and they are the last island-born wolves left on the island. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the May 29th, 2019, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by J.A. Robinson at University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA, and colleagues was titled, "Genomic signatures of extensive inbreeding in Isle Royale wolves, a population on the threshold of extinction."
Credit
[Credit: Rolf O. Peterson, Michigan Technological University]
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