Identifying conservation units within captive chimpanzee populations

One of the primary objectives in the captive management of any endangered p rimate is to preserve as much as possible the genetic diversity that has ev olved and still exists in wild gene pools. The rationale for this is based on the theoretical understanding of the relationship between genetic divers ity and fitness in response to selection. There remains little consensus, h owever, as to the type of genetic data that should be used to monitor capti ve populations. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the degree an d nature of genetic diversity among "wild" chimpanzee gene pools, as well a s to determine if one type of genetic data is more useful than others, DNA sequence data were generated at three unlinked, nonrepetitive nuclear loci, one polymorphic microsatellite, and the mitochondrial D-loop for 59 unrela ted common and pygmy chimpanzees. The results suggest that: 1) data from nu clear loci can be used to differentiate common chimpanzee subspecies; 2) py gmy chimpanzees may have less genetic diversity than common chimpanzees; 3) shared microsatellite alleles do not always indicate identity by descent; and 4) nonrepetitive loci provide unique insights into evolutionary relatio nships and provide useful information for captive management programs. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.