UC DAVIS, GORILLA DOCTORS
Species: Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
The first full genome sequence of the mountain gorilla, one subspecies of the eastern gorilla, suggests a that the population has been declining for 100,000 years, resulting in limited genetic diversity and the highest known rate of primate inbreeding, according to a study published last week (April 9) in Science.
An international team of scientists sequenced the genomes of seven mountain gorillas and six eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), another eastern gorilla subspecies, comparing them to that of another gorilla species, the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), which split from the eastern gorilla 20,000 years ago. The researchers found that while 13.8 percent of a western lowland gorilla’s genome contained identical alleles on both sets of chromosomes, the same ...
