Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (7)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Goldsworthy, S.
Right arrow Articles by Fleischer, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Goldsworthy, S.
Right arrow Articles by Fleischer, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

The Journal of Heredity 2000:91(5)
© 2000 The American Genetic Association 91:371-377

Variation in the mitochondrial control region in the Juan Fernández fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii)

S Goldsworthy, J Francis, D Boness, and R Fleischer*

National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20008, USA *Corresponding author

The Juan Fernández fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii) was allegedly extremely abundant, numbering as many as 4 million prior to sealing which continued from the late 17th to the late 19th century. By the end of the sealing era the species was thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered at Alejandro Selkirk Island in 1965. Historic records would suggest that the species underwent a substantial population bottleneck as a result of commercial sealing, and from population genetic theory we predicted that the genetic variability in the species would be low. We compared the mtDNA control region sequence from 28 Juan Fernández fur seals from two islands in the Juan Fernández Archipelago (Chile). Contrary to expectation, we found that variation in the Juan Fernández fur seals is not greatly reduced in comparison to other pinniped taxa, especially given the apparent severity of the bottleneck they underwent. We also determined minor, but significantly different haplotype frequencies among the populations on the two islands (Alejandro Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe Islands), but no difference in their levels of variability. Such differences may have arisen stochastically via a recent founder event from Alejandro Selkirk to Robinson Crusoe Island or subsequent genetic drift.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J HeredHome page
D. S. Weber, B. S. Stewart, and N. Lehman
Genetic Consequences of a Severe Population Bottleneck in the Guadalupe Fur Seal (Arctocephalus townsendi)
J. Hered., March 1, 2004; 95(2): 144 - 153.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.