Dear colleagues, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our new article on Australian sea lion genomics in *Animal Conservation*:
Bilgmann, K., Armansin, N., Ferchaud, A-L., Normandeau, E., Bernatchez, L., Harcourt, R., Ahonen, H., Lowther, A., Goldsworthy, S. D., & Stow, A. (2021). Low effective population size in the genetically bottlenecked Australian sea lion is insufficient to maintain genetic variation. *Animal Conservation* http://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12688 <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/VueOCvl1g2SNRAYZtXHL5o?domain=doi.org> In case don't have access to the journal, please feel free to email kerstin.bilgm...@mq.edu.au to request a copy of the pdf. *Abstract* Genetic bottlenecks can reduce effective population sizes (*Ne*), increase the rate at which genetic variation is lost via drift, increase the frequency of deleterious mutations and thereby accentuate inbreeding risk and lower evolutionary potential. Here, we tested for the presence of a genetic bottleneck in the endangered Australian sea lion (*Neophoca cinerea*), estimated *Ne* and predicted future losses of genetic variation under a range of scenarios. We used 2238 genome‐wide neutral single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 72 individuals sampled from colonies off the southern (SA) and western (WA) coastline of Australia. Coalescent analyses using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) methods indicated that both the SA and WA populations have experienced a historical genetic bottleneck. Using LD‐based methods, we estimated contemporary *Ne* to be 160 (CI = 146–178) and 424 (CI = 397–458) for the WA and SA populations respectively. Modelled future population declines suggested that disease epidemics prompted the highest increases in inbreeding relative to fishery‐related mortalities and other modelled threats. Small effective sizes and relatively low genetic variation leave this species vulnerable, and these risks may be compounded if current population declines are not reversed. Best wishes, Kerstin Kerstin Bilgmann, PhD, SFHEA Honorary Research Fellow Department of Biological Sciences Macquarie University Sydney, NSW 2109 Australia Ph: +61(0)2 9850 8151 & Honorary Associate Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL), and Molecular Ecology Lab (MELFU) Biological Sciences Flinders University, GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, SA 5001 Australia
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