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Preliminary analysis of mitochondrial DNA variation in a southern feeding group of eastern North Pacific gray whales

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Abstract

Although the majority of eastern North Pacific(ENP) gray whales migrate to feeding grounds inthe Bering and Chukchi Seas, some terminate themigration in more southerly areas such asBritish Columbia (BC). Long-term sightingstudies in Clayoquot Sound (CS), BC, indicatethat approximately 35–50 individuals exhibitlong-term fidelity to this site. To determinethe sex composition (based on genetic sexing)of CS gray whales and to assess whethermatrilineal site-fidelity occurs in CS, wecollected skin biopsy samples from 16 CSindividuals (`residents') and 41 samples fromother areas (representative of the overallpopulation in the ENP: `non-residents'). Atotal of 27 polymorphic sites defined 24haploytpes among the 57 samples sequenced forHV1 of the mtDNA control region. Thenucleotide and haplotype diversities of thesesamples were 0.017 (SE = 0.0012) and 0.94(SE = 0.0019), respectively. Neighbor-joininganalysis revealed five lineages each of whichcontained haplotypes that were observed in bothresidents and non-residents. Residents did notdiffer significantly from non-residents, and nosignificant sex-ratio bias was found. Thesedata suggest a level of diversity that isinconsistent with a severe historicalbottleneck, and given the available samplesize, do not indicate matrilineally directedfidelity to Clayoquot Sound.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. American University, Department of Biology, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20016, USA

    T.E. Steeves

  2. Molecular Genetics Laboratory, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, 20008, USA

    T.E. Steeves & R.C. Fleischer

  3. West Coast Whale Research Foundation, 1200-925 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 3L2, Canada

    J.D. Darling

  4. National Marine Fisheries Service, 219 Ft. Johnson Road, Charleston, SC, 29412, USA

    P.E. Rosel & C.M. Schaeff

Authors
  1. T.E. Steeves
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  2. J.D. Darling
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  3. P.E. Rosel
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  4. C.M. Schaeff
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  5. R.C. Fleischer
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Correspondence to T.E. Steeves.

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Steeves, T., Darling, J., Rosel, P. et al. Preliminary analysis of mitochondrial DNA variation in a southern feeding group of eastern North Pacific gray whales. Conservation Genetics 2, 379–384 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012590315579

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