Genetic Basis for Species Vulnerability in the Cheetah

This foundational paper reported that the cheetah carries extraordinarily low genetic variation across allozyme and other molecular markers, far below that of typical outbred mammals. The authors documented near-monomorphism, poor reproductive performance, high juvenile mortality, and the famous reciprocal skin-graft acceptance among unrelated cheetahs indicating uniform major histocompatibility loci. They interpreted these findings as evidence of one or more severe historical population bottlenecks that purged diversity and left the species susceptible to disease and reproductive failure. The study launched conservation genetics as a discipline and made the cheetah the textbook example of how genetic depletion can threaten a species independent of habitat loss.