RAD-Seq data advance captive-based conservation of wild bactrian camels (Camelus ferus)

The wild Bactrian camel is one of the world’s rarest and most endangered animals and is facing hybridization threat due to human encroachment. Although captive breeding programs of the wild camel have been undertaken to save it from extinction, to succeed, we need to take into account many factors, e.g., maintain genetic diversity of captive populations similar to that found in wild populations. We applied restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq) on a captive population in the most important wild camel conservation center in China—Gansu endangered animal conservation center—to investigate the genetic diversity, potential hybridization and inbreeding threats, and thus further guide population management. We sequenced a total of 44 Bactrian camels including 13 wild camels and 31 domestic camels and generated a genome-wide polymorphism dataset with 679,195 high-quality SNPs. This enabled us to detect wild camel individuals with recent genetic introgression from domestic camels. In addition, it revealed that the studied captive population suffers from inbreeding. We therefore suggest practical measures to improve the management of the wild camel and to protect its natural gene pool.