Genes of famed big cat Machhli to be mapped

A team of geneticists, conservation biologists and wildlife officials are in the process of preparing a genetic map — that is, tracing out the sequence of genes — from Machhli’s DNA, which was extracted at the time of her death. “Machhli is an iconic individual, has lived long, has sired a large number of cubs and, because the tigers at Ranthambore are highly inbred, she would serve as an excellent example of the species. Plus, we were lucky to get permits and ideal tissue samples at the right time,” said Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, who is leading Machhli’s genome analysis. Once the complete genome map is prepared, and this could take six months more, it could serve as a template, or ‘reference genome’, for comparing the genes of tigers anywhere, Dr. Ramakrishnan told The Hindu on the sidelines of the NextGen Genomics, Biology, Bioinformatics and Technologies (NGBT) Conference. Credited with reviving the tiger population at the Ranthambore National Park, Machhli, also known as T16, earned that name due to fish-like marks on her face. The 20-year-old tigress sired 11 cubs including seven females and four males, and according to some estimates, was estimated to have brought in about Rs. 65 crore a year as tourism revenue to the National Park between 2006 and 2016.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/genes-of-famed-tiger-machhli-to-be-mapped/article25117086.ece

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