@article {530846, title = {Mountain gorilla genomes reveal the impact of long-term population decline and inbreeding}, journal = {Science}, volume = {348}, number = {6231}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 10}, pages = {242-5}, abstract = {Mountain gorillas are an endangered great ape subspecies and a prominent focus for conservation, yet we know little about their genomic diversity and evolutionary past. We sequenced whole genomes from multiple wild individuals and compared the genomes of all four Gorilla subspecies. We found that the two eastern subspecies have experienced a prolonged population decline over the past 100,000 years, resulting in very low genetic diversity and an increased overall burden of deleterious variation. A further recent decline in the mountain gorilla population has led to extensive inbreeding, such that individuals are typically homozygous at 34\% of their sequence, leading to the purging of severely deleterious recessive mutations from the population. We discuss the causes of their decline and the consequences for their future survival.}, keywords = {Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Biological Evolution, Democratic Republic of the Congo, DNA Copy Number Variations, Endangered Species, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome, Gorilla gorilla, Homozygote, Inbreeding, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Mutation, Population Dynamics, Rwanda, Selection, Genetic, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Species Specificity, Time Factors}, issn = {1095-9203}, doi = {10.1126/science.aaa3952}, author = {Xue, Yali and Prado-Martinez, Javier and Sudmant, Peter H and Narasimhan, Vagheesh and Ayub, Qasim and Szpak, Michal and Frandsen, Peter and Chen, Yuan and Yngvadottir, Bryndis and Cooper, David N and de Manuel, Marc and Hernandez-Rodriguez, Jessica and Lobon, Irene and Siegismund, Hans R and Pagani, Luca and Quail, Michael A and Hvilsom, Christina and Mudakikwa, Antoine and Eichler, Evan E and Cranfield, Michael R and Marques-Bonet, Tomas and Tyler-Smith, Chris and Scally, Aylwyn} }