A study uncovers genetic insights that could help shore up populations of a dog species thought to be nearly extinct in the wild. New Guinea singing dogs (NGSD) are a rare population from the highlands of New Guinea that owe their name to a recognizable vocalization evoking wolf howls and whale song. Once abundant on the island, the dogs are thought to be nearly extinct in the wild, with no more than 300 captive individuals bred for conservation purposes currently alive. Elaine Ostrander, Brian Davis, James McIntyre, and colleagues analyzed the nuclear genomes of three putative highland wild dogs (HWD), a group of 15 free-roaming dogs living near the heights of a gold mine in western Papua that share striking morphological similarities with NGSDs and whose existence was uncovered by a 2016 expedition. Phylogenetic analysis suggested shared ancestry between HWDs and the captive NGSDs. Further, 72% of the HWD genome resembled that of captive NGSDs, but the HWD genome showed signs of relatively higher genetic diversity. The latter finding suggests that HWDs might play a crucial role in conservation efforts to bolster NGSD populations. According to the authors, the findings suggest that the founding population of NGSDs is not extinct and could help revitalize the compromised NGSD population.
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Article #20-07242: "New Guinea highland wild dogs are the original New Guinea singing dogs," by Suriani Surbakti, Heidi G .Parker, et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Elaine Ostrander, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD; tel: 301-594-5284; e-mail: <eostrand@mail.nih.gov>
High resolution images, along with caption are credit information can be found at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rIzpGhlXavdCzraDfJeSKwQ2i6OYIrDt?usp=sharing
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences