Population genetics of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
type: CreativeWork
description: The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an arboreal marsupial native to Australia. Koalas can be found in eastern Australia in the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The koala is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in Queensland and New South Wales, while in South Australia the koala’s status is ‘rare’. In the United States, the species is listed as ‘threatened’ under the U.S Endangered Species Act. In the early 1900s, koala fur was a valuable commodity, and the high demand for their pelts resulted in the slaughter of millions of koalas across Australia. In an effort to reintroduce koalas to their former range, Victoria was gradually restocked with animals from French Island, which were descended from a small number of individuals. Because the koalas from French Island descended from a small number of founders this resulted in a widespread translocation of koalas with low genetic diversity. Koalas are currently threatened by loss of habitat and urbanization due to increasing growth of the human population. The goals of this study were: 1) to assess genetic diversity of the koala and 2) to determine the genetic structure of the koala. To achieve these goals, we sequenced 648 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial control region and developed 14 microsatellite markers. Queensland koala samples (N = 27) were collected from various United States zoos and are designated here as Queensland (zoo). Samples from wild koalas were collected from different localities in southern Australia, including: (BR) Brisbane Ranges (N = 23), (SR) Stony Rises (N = 24), (FI) French Island (N =1) and (KI) Kangaroo Island (N = 9). Mitochondrial control region haplotype diversity was extremely low in koalas from southern Australia. Koalas from BR, SR, FI and KI carried only haplotype (KCR1), compared to koalas from Queensland (zoo), which carried 8 haplotypes. We compared our 648 bp of koala mtDNA control region with previously published koala haplotypes from Houlden et al., (…
abstract: The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an arboreal marsupial native to Australia. Koalas can be found in eastern Australia in the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The koala is listed as ‘vulnerable’ in Queensland and New South Wales, while in South Australia the koala’s status is ‘rare’. In the United States, the species is listed as ‘threatened’ under the U.S Endangered Species Act. In the early 1900s, koala fur was a valuable commodity, and the high demand for their pelts resulted in the slaughter of millions of koalas across Australia. In an effort to reintroduce koalas to their former range, Victoria was gradually restocked with animals from French Island, which were descended from a small number of individuals. Because the koalas from French Island descended from a small number of founders this resulted in a widespread translocation of koalas with low genetic diversity. Koalas are currently threatened by loss of habitat and urbanization due to increasing growth of the human population. The goals of this study were: 1) to assess genetic diversity of the koala and 2) to determine the genetic structure of the koala. To achieve these goals, we sequenced 648 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial control region and developed 14 microsatellite markers. Queensland koala samples (N = 27) were collected from various United States zoos and are designated here as Queensland (zoo). Samples from wild koalas were collected from different localities in southern Australia, including: (BR) Brisbane Ranges (N = 23), (SR) Stony Rises (N = 24), (FI) French Island (N =1) and (KI) Kangaroo Island (N = 9). Mitochondrial control region haplotype diversity was extremely low in koalas from southern Australia. Koalas from BR, SR, FI and KI carried only haplotype (KCR1), compared to koalas from Queensland (zoo), which carried 8 haplotypes. We compared our 648 bp of koala mtDNA control region with previously published koala haplotypes from Houlden et al., (…
author: Ruiz-Rodriguez, Christina
language: en
keywords: Population genetics, koala, microsatellites, mtDNA, bottleneck, founder effect, zoo, animal sciences, genetic diversity
date published: 2015-01-21T19:56:02Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:07Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73012