Squawking success
Genes scheme reveals mystery of Kiwi parrots
A project to map the genes of every living ka¯ka¯po¯ has been completed and is likely to answer many lingering questions about the species.
The Ka¯ ka¯ po¯ 125 project began in 2015, and sought to sequence the genome of all living ka¯ ka¯ po¯ , which then numbered 125. The results are hoped to pinpoint how long they live for, and the reasons for the bird’s infertility.
The scheme was based on work by an American researcher who sequenced the genome belonging to Jane, a ka¯ka¯po¯ found on Stewart Island in 1989, to a ‘‘platinum standard’’.
Jane was one of the first animals in the world to have a genome sequenced to that standard and it meant the rest of her species could be mapped with relative ease. Money to do so was raised through crowdfunding, and the project was led by the Department of Conservation’s ka¯ka¯po¯ scientist, Dr Andrew Digby.
There are now 172 ka¯ka¯po¯ genomes sequenced, comprising 147 living birds, as well as several dead ones.
‘‘We’ve basically got the set of all genes, of all the individuals, in the entire species,’’
Digby said.
‘‘It’s a massive resource . . . it’s kind of limitless, in a way, what we can find out.’’
The ka¯ ka¯ po¯ is the second known species to have every member’s genome sequenced after the Spix’s macaw, an endangered parrot believed to be extinct in the wild.
The data is hoped to answer questions about a species scientists know little about despite significant resources put towards its conservation.
Among those questions is how long ka¯ka¯po¯ live because there is no reliable method to age birds that were found as adults.
‘‘We know they’re at least 35 or 40, but are they 50? Or 100?’’ Digby said. ‘‘Are they about to die next year? We’ve got no idea.’’
A ka¯ka¯po¯ named Richard Henry, found as an adult in Fiordland in 1975, died in 2010. He was likely between 80 and 100 years old, but may have been older.
The primary purpose of the genome sequencing was to help conservation, Digby said. A key focus area is infertility, which plagues the ka¯ ka¯ po¯ population – around half of eggs hatch, and only one third result in a chick fledging.
It would also help build a family tree for ka¯ ka¯ po¯ to determine which birds would make suitable partners.
The genetic data was still being assembled, but planned research already includes a threeyear project funded with a Marsden Fund grant to study hatching failure by comparing the genes of dead embryos to live birds.
‘‘We’ll be able to look at a dead embryo in exactly the same position in the DNA sequence as we would in a live bird, and see if there’s any genetic difference between them,’’ said Dr Bruce Robertson, a molecular biologist at the University of Otago, who’s spent two decades studying ka¯ ka¯ po¯ genetics.
‘‘If you can crack why that is, and put in place management strategies to resolve that, then you’re increasing the probabilities that eggs will hatch so if you have an egg, you have a ka¯ka¯po¯, which in conservation is what you want.’’
He said the new data was ‘‘a major step forward.’’