2024 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 02:07
Scientists have discovered increasing mutations in the eastern lowland gorilla group, including webbing between the toes and mutations leading to fertility problems.
The eastern lowland gorilla population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined by more than 80% in recent decades.
According to scientists, due to the decline in the population, gorillas are increasingly interbreeding among close relatives (inbreeding), which leads to an increase in mutations harmful to the gene pool.
According to the article. published in the latest issue of Current Biology, scientists compared recent gorilla DNA samples with DNA samples stored in a database from earlier years.
They found a dramatic decline in genetic diversity and an increase in gene mutations. If this problem is not addressed, a variety of birth defects among the eastern lowland gorillas will increasingly appear and this group of great apes will quickly become extinct.
Curiously, the same Swedish research team has carried out a similar experiment with mountain gorillas, comparing their fresh DNA with samples taken decades ago. And in mountain gorillas, the consequences of closely related crossbreeding were not noticed.
This is a curious paradox, since people have invaded mountain gorillas much earlier and more often than the eastern lowland gorillas, where they have entered more recently.
According to scientists, such a paradox can be explained by an amazing adaptation. Allegedly, groups of mountain gorillas, which were always small in number, over time independently weeded out the most harmful mutations leading to degeneration.
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