Current research highlights​
Better tools for monitoring genetic diversity to inform management and policy
The GEOBON Genetic Composition Working Group, the IUCN SSC Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, and the Coalition for Conservation Genetics, are international collaborations. We aim to improve approaches to measuring, monitoring, evaluating and interpreting genetic diversity, including within-species genetic diversity. For example:
Making recommendations about the scope of genetic diversity monitoring and appropriate indicators for genetic diversity
Reviewing how genetic diversity is evaluated, conserved, and reported on by different countries in National Reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and making recommendations to improve this reporting
Developing tools and guidelines to standardise measurement of global changes in genetic diversity: we propose Essential Biodiversity Variables for intraspecific genetic diversity
Reliable methods for eDNA and species from faeces
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is DNA that is obtained indirectly from the environment (e.g. from soil, water or faeces), rather than directly from an organism. eDNA can help us to detect and monitor biodiversity and to understand wildlife distributions and interactions.
There's been a lot of work in this field over the last few years to understand the sensitivity, specificity, and limitations of eDNA, and to improve methods. Some of the work I've been involved in includes:
Developing a framework that explains how to develop and validate DNA tests for specimen identification from eDNA
Evaluating different methods for DNA extraction from scats
Using laboratory trials and bioinformatic analyses to understand the risks of false positive and false negative results associated with a fox DNA test
Swabs can be used to collect DNA from scat samples
Some past projects
The Oz Mammals Genomics Initiative
The Oz Mammals Genomics Initiative supported a range of projects that linked genomics to conservation management and to museum collection-based research. Some examples:​​​​
​a phylogenomic study of all Australian marsupials
conservation genetics and taxonomic resolution of southern brown and golden bandicoots
museum genomics to understand rodent extinctions in Australia, and the evolution and biogeography of Sahul rodents
population genomics of northern quolls and the impact of non-native cane toads
A southern brown bandicoot (photo credit Simon Troman)
Defining species and "units" for wildlife management
Understanding taxonomy and how genetic diversity varies within wildlife species and populations can provide information to guide their management. To effectively conserve wildlife we need to be able to determine appropriate management "units", which could be species, subspecies, or distinct populations.
Take grassland earless dragons, for example:
Using population genetics, we identified management units for grassland earless dragons in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales (I wrote a related blog here).
More recently, we combined population genomics and morphological analyses of museum specimens, revising the taxonomy of these charismatic lizards and describing new species (see related blog here).
An adult grassland earless dragon
DNA detection of invasive species from predator poo
Foxes and cats are not native to Australia and wildlife managers need to understand the distributions of these invasive species so they can monitor and control them. We can use DNA to detect introduced predators from their scats - it is often much easier to find scats than it is to find the animals themselves. We have used DNA analysis of scats to detect the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Tasmania. From 2007 to 2014, >12,000 predator scats were collected from across Tasmania for DNA testing. In surveys up to 2011, we detected fox DNA from scats from different locations in Tasmania. We detected no further evidence of foxes during the 2014 survey. We also developed a new predator DNA test that can distinguish all large terrestrial mammal predators in Australia, including cats, dogs, foxes, devils, and four species of quoll.
A feral cat at Mungo National Park
Using genetics to understand introduced species
Characterising genetic diversity in introduced populations can provide useful information about the origins and dynamics of those populations.
Using population genetics, and later population genomics, to study introduced brushtail possums in New Zealand, we found evidence of a hybrid zone and barriers to dispersal between possums of Tasmanian and mainland Australian ancestry.
Sugar gliders are Australian natives, but historical records suggest they were introduced to Tasmania by Europeans. Predation by sugar gliders is now known to threaten several bird species in Tasmania. We have shown Tasmanian sugar gliders to be genetically very similar to mainland populations, evidence that they were relatively recently introduced to Tasmania.
A brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
Sex chromosome genetic markers for conservation genetics
In mammals, the Y chromosome is male-specific and is passed directly from father to son. In contrast, each female inherits two copies of the X chromosome (one from each parent) but each male inherits only one copy of the X chromosome (from his mother). These differences in inheritance mean that genetic markers located on the sex chromosomes can help us to understand differences in patterns of dispersal and reproductive behaviour between males and females. My PhD focused on sex chromosome genetic markers in the tammar wallaby:
Developed genetic markers called microsatellites from the tammar wallaby X chromosome and Y chromosome
Compared genetic variation on different chromosomes in two tammar wallaby populations. I found evidence for a male-bias to dispersal on Kangaroo Island and observed extremely low Y chromosome diversity on Garden Island
used a method called small-pool PCR to study rates and types of mutations at tammar wallaby microsatellites and to investigate the risks of genotyping errors and the reliability of genotyping from trace amounts of DNA
Anna with tammar wallabies (photo credit Lyn Hinds)
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