RANGE · RANGE – Recombination And geNomic architecture in Genomic Erosion

Understanding how threatened populations lose genetic diversity is a fundamental challenge in evolutionary biology and conservation. Genomic erosion—the loss of diversity and accumulation of harmful mutations—reduces adaptive potential, drives inbreeding depression, and increases extinction risk. Yet, we still lack predictive models of how erosion unfolds across the genome during population decline. In RANGE, my aim is to test how recombination landscapes and genome architecture shape genomic erosion, moving beyond genome-wide averages to reveal fine-scale rules that govern genetic diversity loss. The project combines three components: (i) Develop genomic resources by building high-resolution recombination maps, analysing high-quality reference genomes, and reconstructing founder haplotypes in four endangered bird species with exceptional temporal and pedigree data. (ii) Explain patterns of genomic erosion by tracking haplotype segments through pedigrees and applying simulations to disentangle the contributions of recombination, drift, and gene conversion. (iii) Establish a predictive framework that integrates empirical patterns with forward-time models (SLiM) to generalise findings across genomes and species. By explicitly incorporating recombination landscapes into temporal genomic analyses, RANGE will, for the first time, test whether genomic features can predict the locations and patterns of load accumulation in threatened birds. This integration of evolutionary theory, high-quality temporal genomics, and conservation will transform our understanding of genomic erosion, delivering conceptual advances and practical insights into how genome architecture shapes diversity in small populations.