ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
The inflated significance of neutral genetic diversity in conservation genetics.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 175 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
175 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
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- Historical and contemporary butterfly genomes reveal genetic erosion in response to land-use intensification.iScience · 2026Article
- Putatively Adaptive and Genome-Wide Genetic Variation Often Rank Populations as Similarly Distinctive.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Genetic-based conservation status indicators applied to endemics with restricted distributions: a case for eastern Amazonian cangas plants.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Genomic structural variation rescues a classic biological invader from a population bottleneck.Science advances · 2026Article
- Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Using herbarium collections to study genetic responses to global change.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- Assessing the Evolutionary Potential of Endangered Populations Using Genomic Analyses of Selection in Ecologically Important Gene Regions.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- High connectivity and genetic diversity in the Endangered endemic white-spotted sand bass 'camotillo' (Paralabrax albomaculatus) within the Galápagos Marine Reserve.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- A chromosome-level genome for gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae) provides a novel resource for conservation and management.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Variation in seed and kernel oil characteristics of wild Litsea cubeba influenced by major ecological factors across southern China.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Conspecific Scaffold-Level Genome Assembly Outperforms Heterospecific Chromosome-Level Assemblies for Assessing Genetic Indicators in a Threatened Marine Fish.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Historical and contemporary genomes of an endangered rodent reveal shifts in environmentally associated genes.Science advances · 2026Article
- Deep learning reveals genomic regions introgressed between two recurrently hybridizing lynx species.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genomic erosion across avian lineages in the context of their evolutionary history.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genetic Diversity Impacts Climate-Induced Species Range Shifts.Ecology letters · 2026Review
- Mitogenomes reveal multiple evolutionary units and low genetic diversity of the critically endangered pancake tortoiseiScience · 2026Article
- Article
115 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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2 authors.
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Abstract
The current rate of species extinction is rapidly approaching unprecedented highs, and life on Earth presently faces a sixth mass extinction event driven by anthropogenic activity, climate change, and ecological collapse. The field of conservation genetics aims at preserving species by using their levels of genetic diversity, usually measured as neutral genome-wide diversity, as a barometer for evaluating population health and extinction risk. A fundamental assumption is that higher levels of genetic diversity lead to an increase in fitness and long-term survival of a species. Here, we argue against the perceived importance of neutral genetic diversity for the conservation of wild populations and species. We demonstrate that no simple general relationship exists between neutral genetic diversity and the risk of species extinction. Instead, a better understanding of the properties of functional genetic diversity, demographic history, and ecological relationships is necessary for developing and implementing effective conservation genetic strategies.
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