Genetic research has revealed that the endangered native Australian nightingale – with its ridiculously large ears and protruding snout – doesn’t just look strange on the outside.
“Bilbies are weird and cute. The genome has been fascinating,” said Prof Carolyn Hogg, of the University of Sydney, who led the research that sequenced the genome of the great nightingale for the first time.
“They have the largest genome of any marsupial – there’s 3.66 billion pieces in it,” said Hogg, of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group.
The genetic sequence will help conservationists target their efforts to save the species, which had already disappeared from about 80% of its range, Hogg said.
The reason the nightingale’s genome is so large may be due in part to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell.
“Because they dig in the desert looking for grains and seeds, they’re really important to the landscape and they cycle the soil,” Hogg said.
Published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the research is the result of work to sequence the genome that began in 2018 but was halted due to the global pandemic.
The genetic blueprint of the nightingale, a culturally important species for many indigenous communities, includes information on how the elusive omnivorous nocturnal animals grow and evolve.
Hogg said: “It helps us understand what gives nightingales their unique sense of smell and how they survive in the desert without drinking water.”
All 115 genes expressed in the human uterus to produce a placenta are also found in the tail, Hogg said. “They have so many fascinating genes.”
The European invasion and the subsequent spread of wild cats, foxes and rabbits – the latter of which compete for food with nightingales – had seen the number of nightingales decline.
after promoting the newsletter
The only other member of the marsupial family – the little wagtail – is extinct and thought to have hung around the landscape until the 1960s. The team also sequenced the little wagtail using a scraping from the skull of a specimen collected in 1898.
Greater numbers of bibili in the wild are unknown, but about 6,000 live in sanctuaries that are either fenced off for protection or located on islands.
The genome is already being used to help manage nightingales in zoos, sanctuaries and islands.
Hogg said: “By selecting individuals for translocation and release, we maximize their genetic diversity, thereby improving the population’s ability to adapt to a changing world.”
A method to track and assess wagtail populations using their scat was also prompted by genome sequencing, allowing for a more accurate way of understanding what was happening to wild populations.
Ranger Scott West, from the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area in Western Australia, said: “We know a lot about bilbies – where they live, what they eat and how to track them.
“It’s good to use the iPad for maps and cameras to monitor them. The DNA work also helps to check if the nightingales are related, where they are from and how far they have travelled.”
#Weird #cute #bilby #genome #sequence #save #species
Image Source : www.theguardian.com