Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris.
The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, was heavily hunted and declared extinct in the 19th century. However, a colony remained on remote Guadalupe Island, Mexico and the species has since repopulated most of its historical distribution. Here, we present a comprehensive evaluation of ge...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7rk6h9g6 2023-09-05T13:19:12+02:00 Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. Abadía-Cardoso, Alicia Freimer, Nelson B Deiner, Kristy Garza, John Carlos 618 - 627 2017-09-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rk6h9g6 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt7rk6h9g6 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rk6h9g6 public Journal of Heredity, vol 108, iss 6 Genetics Life on Land Alleles Animals Base Sequence California Gene Frequency Genetic Variation Population Mexico Microsatellite Repeats Mutation Rate Population Density Seals Earless Sequence Analysis DNA bottleneck microsatellites Mirounga pinniped Evolutionary Biology article 2017 ftcdlib 2023-08-21T18:05:05Z The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, was heavily hunted and declared extinct in the 19th century. However, a colony remained on remote Guadalupe Island, Mexico and the species has since repopulated most of its historical distribution. Here, we present a comprehensive evaluation of genetic variation in the species. First, we assess the effect of the demographic bottleneck on microsatellite variability and compare it with that found in other pinnipeds, demonstrating levels of variation similar to that in species that continue to be threatened with extinction. Next, we use sequence data from these markers to demonstrate that some of the limited polymorphism predates the bottleneck. However, most contemporary variation appears to have arisen recently and persisted due to exponential growth. We also describe how we use the range in allele size of microsatellites to estimate ancestral effective population size before the bottleneck, demonstrating a large reduction in effective size. We then employ a classical method for bacteria to estimate the microsatellite mutation rate in the species, deriving an estimate that is extremely similar to that estimated for a similar set of loci in humans, indicating consistency of microsatellite mutation rates in mammals. Finally, we find slight significant structure between some geographically separated colonies, although its biological significance is unclear. This work demonstrates that genetic analysis can be useful for evaluating the population biology of the northern elephant seal, in spite of the bottleneck that removed most genetic variation from the species. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seal University of California: eScholarship |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Genetics Life on Land Alleles Animals Base Sequence California Gene Frequency Genetic Variation Population Mexico Microsatellite Repeats Mutation Rate Population Density Seals Earless Sequence Analysis DNA bottleneck microsatellites Mirounga pinniped Evolutionary Biology |
spellingShingle |
Genetics Life on Land Alleles Animals Base Sequence California Gene Frequency Genetic Variation Population Mexico Microsatellite Repeats Mutation Rate Population Density Seals Earless Sequence Analysis DNA bottleneck microsatellites Mirounga pinniped Evolutionary Biology Abadía-Cardoso, Alicia Freimer, Nelson B Deiner, Kristy Garza, John Carlos Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
topic_facet |
Genetics Life on Land Alleles Animals Base Sequence California Gene Frequency Genetic Variation Population Mexico Microsatellite Repeats Mutation Rate Population Density Seals Earless Sequence Analysis DNA bottleneck microsatellites Mirounga pinniped Evolutionary Biology |
description |
The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, was heavily hunted and declared extinct in the 19th century. However, a colony remained on remote Guadalupe Island, Mexico and the species has since repopulated most of its historical distribution. Here, we present a comprehensive evaluation of genetic variation in the species. First, we assess the effect of the demographic bottleneck on microsatellite variability and compare it with that found in other pinnipeds, demonstrating levels of variation similar to that in species that continue to be threatened with extinction. Next, we use sequence data from these markers to demonstrate that some of the limited polymorphism predates the bottleneck. However, most contemporary variation appears to have arisen recently and persisted due to exponential growth. We also describe how we use the range in allele size of microsatellites to estimate ancestral effective population size before the bottleneck, demonstrating a large reduction in effective size. We then employ a classical method for bacteria to estimate the microsatellite mutation rate in the species, deriving an estimate that is extremely similar to that estimated for a similar set of loci in humans, indicating consistency of microsatellite mutation rates in mammals. Finally, we find slight significant structure between some geographically separated colonies, although its biological significance is unclear. This work demonstrates that genetic analysis can be useful for evaluating the population biology of the northern elephant seal, in spite of the bottleneck that removed most genetic variation from the species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Abadía-Cardoso, Alicia Freimer, Nelson B Deiner, Kristy Garza, John Carlos |
author_facet |
Abadía-Cardoso, Alicia Freimer, Nelson B Deiner, Kristy Garza, John Carlos |
author_sort |
Abadía-Cardoso, Alicia |
title |
Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
title_short |
Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
title_full |
Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
title_fullStr |
Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Molecular Population Genetics of the Northern Elephant Seal Mirounga angustirostris. |
title_sort |
molecular population genetics of the northern elephant seal mirounga angustirostris. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rk6h9g6 |
op_coverage |
618 - 627 |
genre |
Elephant Seal |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal |
op_source |
Journal of Heredity, vol 108, iss 6 |
op_relation |
qt7rk6h9g6 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7rk6h9g6 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1776200013662126080 |