Abstract
In this study, we describe, for the first time, the genetic composition of the southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina (SES) breeding colony at Potter Peninsula (PP) (King George Island, Antarctica) based on a fragment of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop. This colony is known for presenting the highest average weight of reproductive females, the highest mass recovery rate during the foraging trip between the reproductive and molting haulouts, and the highest average weight of pups at weaning. Samples were taken during the 2007 and 2008 breeding seasons from which 158 new mtDNA control region sequences (299 bps) were obtained, and 42 haplotypes were identified. We combined these data with previously published mtDNA control region datasets to explore the genetic relationships between the colony under study and other SES colonies. Out of the total PP haplotypes (n = 42), 35.7% corresponded to unique haplotypes and the rest were shared haplotypes. These latter ones were mainly shared with Falkland/ Malvinas and Elephant Island colonies. In the haplotype network analysis, the ancestral haplotypes of the species were related to Malvinas/Falklands and South Shetlands Islands. Therefore, PP would retain ancestral mitochondrial genes. The pairwise Fst values showed that, for the most part, all breeding colonies of SES examined herein differed significantly from each other. The exceptions were PP and Elephant Island (EI) which were significantly different from all other colonies but not between them. We propose Malvinas/Falkland as a glacial refuge for the South Shetland Islands SES breeding colonies during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Determining how a species is divided into stocks is crucial for the understanding of population dynamics; therefore, we believe that new studies on the PP colony, including biparental markers and a representative sampling of the South Georgia and Kerguelen Islands populations, are essential to better understand the SES population dynamics.
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All the new sequences will be available from the GenBank database (accession numbers are given in Table 1).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Amalia Lara Bursztyn Fuentes for her careful revision of the manuscript and improvement of the English language. This work has been financially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina (http://www.conicet.gov.ar/) and by the Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego PIDUNTDF B 2017 N07/PIDUNTDF B 2019 N15. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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This work has been financially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina (http://www.conicet.gov.ar/) and by the Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego PIDUNTDF B 2017 N07/PIDUNTDF B 2019 N15. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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All authors conceived and designed research. SP, JN, JS, and ML obtained funding. SP and JS administered the project. JN and SP conducted the field work. JS and LL conducted the experiments. LL analyzed the data. LL wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Lanusse, L., Sánchez, J., Negrete, J. et al. Elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) at Potter Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica: genetic variation of the breeding colony and gene flow with other colonies. Polar Biol 45, 395–403 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02996-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02996-0