Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on April 8, 2007
Journal of Heredity 2007 98(2):147-157; doi:10.1093/jhered/esm005
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mitochondrial DNA Diversity and Population Structure among Southern Right Whales (Eubalaena australis)
From the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand (Patenaude and Baker); the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 (Portway); the Department of Biology, American University, Washington, DC 20006 (Portway and Schaeff); the Western Australia Museum, Francis Street, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia (Bannister); the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa (Best); the Whale Conservation Institute, Lincoln, MA 01733 (Payne and Rowntree); the Fundacion Patagonia National, Marcos A Zar 760, 9120, Puerto, Madryn, Argentina (Rivarola); and the Marine Mammal Program, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Newport, OR 97365 (Baker)
Address correspondence to C.S. Baker at the address above, or e-mail: scott.baker{at}oregonstate.edu.
The population structure and mitochondrial (mt) DNA diversity of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) are described from 146 individuals sampled on 4 winter calving grounds (Argentina, South Africa, Western Australia, and the New Zealand sub-Antarctic) and 2 summer feeding grounds (South Georgia and south of Western Australia). Based on a consensus region of 275 base pairs of the mtDNA control region, 37 variable sites defined 37 unique haplotypes, of which only one was shared between regional samples of the Indo-Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the southern right whale haplotypes revealed 2 distinct clades that differed significantly in frequencies between oceans. An analysis of molecular variance confirmed significant overall differentiation among the 4 calving grounds at both the haplotype and the nucleotype levels (FST = 0.159; 
ST = 0.238; P < 0.001). Haplotype diversity was significantly lower in the Indo-Pacific (h = 0.701 ± 0.037) compared with the South Atlantic (h = 0.948 ± 0.013), despite a longer history of exploitation and larger catches in the South Atlantic. In fact, the haplotype diversity in the Indo-Pacific basin was similar to that of the North Atlantic right whale that currently numbers about 300 animals. Multidimensional scaling of genetic differentiation suggests that gene flow occurred primarily between adjacent calving grounds within an ocean basin, with mixing of lineages from different calving grounds occurring on feeding grounds.
Corresponding Editor: Robert Wayne