A single deer's DNA may help save its whole species
Filipino researchers have mapped the first draft genome of the endangered Visayan spotted deer, using a tissue sample from a deer named Abraham.
The Visayan spotted deer once roamed six islands in the central Philippines, but deforestation and hunting pushed it toward extinction, and it has been listed as endangered since 1988. A last count in 2016 found only about 700 mature deer left, surviving on just two islands, Negros and Panay.
Researchers from Silliman University and the Philippine Genome Center Visayas have now mapped the species' first draft genome, using a tissue sample from Abraham, a captive deer that lived at Silliman's Center for Tropical Conservation Studies. The genome contains 2.5 billion DNA letters across more than 24,000 genes, the first ever sequenced for any endangered Philippine mammal.
The genetic map has already revealed that the captive population is dangerously inbred. Researchers now hope to test carefully mixing captive and wild deer at the Bayawan Nature Reserve on Negros, home to about 70 of the animals, to help restore genetic diversity.
It's a small but meaningful step, one deer's DNA now guiding a wider effort to keep the whole species from disappearing.
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