Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales ...

• Main Authors: Suárez-Menéndez, Marcos, Bérubé, Martine, Furni, Fabrício, Rivera-Leon, Vania, Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter, Larsen, Finn, Sears, Richard, Ramp, Christian, Eriksson, Britas Klemens, Etienne, Rampal, Robbins, Jooke, Palsbøll, Per
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: pedigree; baleen whales; FOS Biological sciences; mutation rate; baleen whale; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5pq; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5pq

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. ...