Biogeography in the deep : hierarchical population genomic structure of two beaked whale species

• Published in: Global Ecology and Conservation
• Main Authors: Onoufriou, Aubrie B., Gaggiotti, Oscar E., de Soto, Natacha Aguilar, McCarthy, Morgan L., Morin, Phillip A., Rosso, Massimiliano, Dalebout, Merel, Davison, Nicholas, Baird, Robin W., Baker, C. Scott, Berrow, Simon, Brownlow, Andrew, Burns, Daniel, Caurant, Florence, Claridge, Diane, Constantine, Rochelle, Demaret, Fabien, Dreyer, Sascha, Ðuras, Martina, Durban, John, Frantzis, Alexandros, Freitas, Luis, Genty, Gabrielle, Galov, Ana, Hansen, Sabine S., Kitchener, Andrew C., Martin, Vidal, Mignucci-Giannoni, Antonio A., Montano, Valeria, Moulins, Aurelie, Olavarría, Carlos, Michael Poole, M., Suárez, Cristel Reyes, Rogan, Emer, Ryan, Conor, Schiavi, Agustina, Tepsich, Paola, Urban, Jorge, West, Kristi, Olsen, Morten Tange, Carroll, Emma L.
• Other Authors: University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. St Andrews Bioinformatics Unit, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: DdRAD sequencing; Mitogenome sequencing; Phylogenomics; Ziphius cavirostris; Mesoplodon densirostris; Ziphiidae; QL Zoology; DAS; MCC; QL; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10023/26242; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2022.e02308

Funding: Funding for this research was provided by the Office of Naval Research, Award numbers N000141613017 and N000142112712. ABO was supported by a partial studentship from the University of St Andrews, School of Biology; OEG by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (Scottish Funding Council grant HR09011); ELC by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi; NAS by a Ramon y Cajal Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Innovation; MLM by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant 801199); CR by the Marine Institute (Cetaceans on the Frontier) and the Irish Research Council; and MTO by the Hartmann Foundation. The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth, yet little is known about the processes driving patterns of genetic diversity in its inhabitants. Here, we investigated the macro- and microevolutionary processes shaping genomic population structure and diversity in two poorly understood, globally distributed, deep-sea predators: Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) and Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris). We used double-digest restriction associated DNA (ddRAD) and whole mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequencing to characterise genetic patterns using phylogenetic trees, cluster analysis, isolation-by-distance, genetic diversity and differentiation statistics. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; Blainville’s n = 43 samples, SNPs=13988; Cuvier’s n = 123, SNPs= 30479) and mitogenomes (Blainville’s n = 27; Cuvier’s n = 35) revealed substantial hierarchical structure at a global scale. Both species display significant genetic structure between the Atlantic, Indo-Pacific and in Cuvier’s, the Mediterranean Sea. Within major ocean basins, clear differentiation is found between genetic clusters on the east and west sides of the North Atlantic, and some distinct patterns of structure in the Indo-Pacific and Southern Hemisphere. We infer that macroevolutionary processes ...