Inbreeding in Island Wolves

A bar graph comparing the proportions of damaging and benign alleles in wolves from Isle Royale and Minnesota.

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

Saved By

1 Users

Description

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that explored inbreeding depression in a small, isolated population of wolves.

Due to human activities, many wild habitats are becoming smaller and more fragmented. This can lead to decreases in population sizes and subsequent increases in inbreeding. Inbred offspring may have genetic conditions that reduce their ability to survive and reproduce, which is called inbreeding depression.

This study examined the wolves of Isle Royale, a small island population with significant inbreeding depression. To determine the genetic impact of inbreeding and basis of inbreeding depression, scientists compared the DNA of the Isle Royale wolves to that of wolves from the mainland. The figure shows some of their results.

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information.

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.

Student Learning Targets

Analyze and interpret data from a scientific figure.
Use genotype and allele data to distinguish between potential causes of inbreeding depression.
Propose how habitat loss and fragmentation may affect inbreeding in wildlife populations.

Estimated Time

Within one 50-minute class period.

Key Terms

bar graph, derived allele, founder effect, genotype, heterozygote, homozygote, inbreeding depression, Mann-Whitney U (MWU) test, recessive, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)

Primary Literature

Robinson, J. A., J. Räikkönen, L. M. Vucetich, J. A. Vucetich, R. O. Peterson, K. E. Lohmueller, and R. K. Wayne. “Genomic signatures of extensive inbreeding in Isle Royale wolves, a population on the threshold of extinction.” Science Advances 5, 5 (2019): eaau0757. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau0757.

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.