Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales ...
Phylogeny-based estimates suggesting a low germline mutation rate (μ) in baleen whales have influenced research ranging from assessments of whaling impacts to evolutionary cancer biology. We estimated μ directly from pedigrees in four baleen whale species for both the mitochondrial control region an...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Dataset |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Dryad
2023
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5pq https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5pq |
Summary: | Phylogeny-based estimates suggesting a low germline mutation rate (μ) in baleen whales have influenced research ranging from assessments of whaling impacts to evolutionary cancer biology. We estimated μ directly from pedigrees in four baleen whale species for both the mitochondrial control region and nuclear genome. The results suggest values higher than those obtained through phylogeny-based estimates and similar to pedigree-based values for primates and toothed whales. Applying our estimate of μ reduces previous genetic–based estimates of pre-exploitation whale abundance by 86% and suggests that μ cannot explain low cancer rates in gigantic mammals. Our study shows that it is feasible to estimate μ directly from pedigrees in natural populations, with wide-ranging implications for ecological and evolutionary research. ... |
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