Baleen Whale Phylogeny and a Past Extensive Radiation Event Revealed by SINE Insertion Analysis

Baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) comprise eleven extant species that are classified into four families. Although several phylogenetic hypotheses about these taxa have been proposed, their phylogenetic relationships remain confused. We addressed this problem using SINE (short interspersed repetitiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular Biology and Evolution
Main Authors: Nikaido, Masato, Hamilton, Healy, Makino, Hitomi, Sasaki, Takeshi, Takahashi, Kazuhiko, Goto, Mutsuo, Kanda, Naohisa, Pastene, Luis A, Okada, Norihiro
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2005
Subjects:
Research Article
baleen whale
baleen whales
toothed whales
Online Access:http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/msj071v1
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msj071
Description
Summary:Baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) comprise eleven extant species that are classified into four families. Although several phylogenetic hypotheses about these taxa have been proposed, their phylogenetic relationships remain confused. We addressed this problem using SINE (short interspersed repetitive element) insertion data, which now are regarded as almost ideal shared, derived characteristics at the molecular level. We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of baleen whales by characterizing 36 informative SINE loci. One of the intriguing conclusions is that balaenopterids and eschrichtiids radiated very rapidly during a very short evolutionary period. During this period, speciation occurred in balaenopterids and eschrichtiids while newly inserted SINE loci remains polymorphic. Later on these SINEs were sorted incompletely into each lineage. Thus, there are now inconsistencies among species regarding the presence or absence of a given SINE. This is in sharp contrast to the phylogeny of toothed whales, for which no SINE inconsistencies have been found. Furthermore, we found monophyletic groupings between humpback and fin whales as well as between (sei + Bryde's) whales and blue whales, both of which have not previously been recognized. The comprehensive SINE insertion data, together with the mitochondrial DNA phylogeny that was recently completed (Sasaki et al., 2005 Syst. Biol. 56:77-90; Rychel, Reeder and Berta 2004, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 32:892-901), provide a nearly complete picture of the evolutionary history of baleen whales.

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