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Journal of Heredity Advance Access published online on November 4, 2009
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esp097
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© The American Genetic Association. 2009. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Microsatellite Genetic Characterization of the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Breeding Ground off Brazil (Breeding Stock A)

Ana Lúcia Cypriano-Souza, Gabriela P. Fernández, Carlos André V. Lima-Rosa, Márcia H. Engel, and Sandro L. Bonatto

From the Laboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Ipiranga 6681, 90619-900 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil (Cypriano-Souza and Bonatto); the Projeto Baleia Jubarte/Instituto Baleia Jubarte, Rua Barão do Rio Branco 26, 45900-000 Caravelas, BA, Brazil (Cypriano-Souza and Engel); the Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil (Fernández); and the Centro de Ciências Agroveterinárias, Departamento de Produção Animal e Alimentos, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Avenida Luiz de Camões 2090, 88520-000 Lages, SC, Brazil (Lima-Rosa)

Address correspondence to Dr Sandro L. Bonatto at the address above, or e-mail: slbonatto{at}pucrs.br.

The Southwestern Atlantic Ocean humpback whales wintering ground (breeding stock A) are distributed along the Brazilian coast (5–23°S), and their main mating and calving ground is in the Abrolhos Bank. We investigated genetic diversity, population structure, and relatedness of individuals sampled from the entire Southwest Atlantic humpback whale population. A total of 275 individuals sampled from 2 subregions (Abrolhos Bank, n = 229 and Praia do Forte, n = 46) were screened for 9 microsatellite loci. This population showed a high level of allelic diversity (A = 12.1) and a high mean observed heterozygosity (HO = 0.733). No signal of significant genetic bottleneck was detected in accordance with the mitochondrial DNA data. We find no evidence of temporal (between years) genetic structure as well as no genetic differentiation between whales from the 2 subregions of the Brazilian breeding ground. We observed that the proportion of males and females in this population was approximately 1:1, which differs from the male-biased sex ratio observed in other breeding grounds. The data obtained through this study provided no evidence of kinship associations within social groups. Finally, a female sampled off South Georgia Islands showed a putative parent–offspring relationship with a female off Abrolhos Bank, supporting the migratory link between these 2 areas.

Key Words: bottleneck • conservation • demography • genetic diversity • migration • relatedness

Corresponding Editor: Brian W. Bowen

Received December 15, 2008
Revised September 23, 2009
Accepted October 1, 2009


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