Welcome to the American Ornithological Society 2018 Annual Conference. We are pleased to have you join us at the lovely Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ.
The genetic underpinning of functional diversity is an important but often overlooked component of conserving populations. Gunnison Sage-grouse is a sagebrush obligate species whose range consists of seven populations, each with variable habitat and climatic conditions. Though geographically close, populations have low levels of natural gene flow resulting in relatively high levels of differentiation. Here, we use 15,033 SNP genotypes in genomic outlier analyses and gene ontology (GO) enrichment tests across six of the seven populations to examine for patterns of putatively functional genetic differentiation. We found six genes which were enriched for GO terms, co-located with regions of chromosomes with high densities of loci displaying outlier behavior. Genes identified could play a role in metabolism of plant secondary metabolites, an important consideration for a sagebrush obligate, and pigmentation pattern variation, an important consideration for sexual selection. Our results provide evidence of local functional divergence in multiple genes and in multiple pathways, for isolated populations of a single species. In addition to providing insight into population uniqueness, this information can be useful in managing species of conservation concern. Actions such as translocation in small populations, with even smaller effective population sizes, could increase the possibility of overwhelming locally adapted genetic diversity. This could decrease fitness if functional genetic uniqueness of populations is not considered.
