Targeted gene flow is a novel conservation strategy that involves translocating individuals with favourable genes to areas where they will have a conservation benefit. One oft-cited risk of the strategy is the potential for outbreeding depression. Here, we used the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) as a model to test this possibility for the first time in a field setting. Northern quolls are endangered by the spread of the invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina), which they are fatally poisoned by, if they mistakenly attempt to consume them. There are, however, a small number of quolls that are “toad-smart”—they possess a heritable trait that means they innately do not attack toads. It is this trait we hoped to promote through targeted gene flow. We established a hybrid population (54 toad-smart and toad-naïve northern quolls) and introduced this population onto a small offshore, toad-infested island in 2017. Genetic data suggests an increase in the toad-smart proportion of the genome increasing from 29.4% in the release population to 40.2% in the first island generation (F2). Our data demonstrate successful in situ hybridisation between populations, with viable F2 hybrids and backcrosses observed, and some evidence of heterosis (hybrid vigour) in F1 hybrids. The population experienced significant reductions in size over the two years, however, through a combination of toad-mortality, as well as stochastic processes including fire, a cyclone, predation and ineffective breeding, and so small sample sizes hamper our results. Such establishment problems would not occur were we to attempt targeted gene flow into already established quoll populations, and our observation of successful hybridisation suggests targeted gene flow could be a viable strategy in established quoll populations soon to be impacted by toads.

靶向基因流是一种新颖的保护策略，涉及将具有有利基因的个体转移到他们将具有保护优势的地区。经常提到的该策略的风险之一是潜在的远距离抑郁症。在这里，我们以北洋杉（Dasyurus hallucatus）为模型，在田间环境中首次测试了这种可能性。入侵的甘蔗蟾蜍（莱茵兰滨海）的扩散威胁到北部的动荡），如果他们错误地尝试食用它们，将会被致命地毒害。但是，有少数的“蟾蜍灵巧”鹌鹑-它们具有可遗传的特征，这意味着它们天生就不会攻击蟾蜍。我们希望通过有针对性的基因流动来促进这种特性。我们建立了一个杂交种群（54只蟾蜍灵巧和纯朴的北部蛤），并于2017年将该种群引入了一个小型的，蟾蜍感染的近海小岛。遗传数据表明，蟾蜍灵巧基因组的比例从29.4％增加在第一代岛屿（F2）中，释放人口的百分比上升至40.2％。我们的数据表明，在种群之间成功进行了原位杂交，观察到有活力的F2杂种和回交，并且一些证据表明F1杂种具有杂种优势（杂种优势）。但是，在过去的两年中，由于蟾蜍的死亡以及包括火灾，旋风，捕食和无效育种在内的随机过程的结合，种群的大小显着减少，因此样本量太小阻碍了我们的研究结果。如果我们尝试将目标基因流转移到已经建立的拟南芥种群中，则不会发生此类建立问题，并且我们对成功杂交的观察表明，在即将受到蟾蜍影响的已建立种群中，靶向基因流可能是可行的策略。