A European Melting Pot of Harbour Porpoise in the French Atlantic Coasts Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear Data

• Main Authors: Alfonsi, Eric, Hassani, Sami, Carpentier, François-Gilles, Le Clec'H, Jean-Yves, Dabin, Willy, van Canneyt, Olivier, Fontaine, Michaël C, Jung, Jean-Luc
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Biologie et génétique des mammifères marins dans leur environnement (BioGEMME), Université de Brest (UBO), Laboratoire d'Etude des Mammifères Marins (LEMM), Océanopolis Brest, Laboratoire d'étude des mammifères marins, Observatoire pour la Conservation de la Mégafaune Marine (PELAGIS), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherche sur les Mammifères Marins (CRMM), La Rochelle Université (ULR), Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie (EAE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Biological Sciences Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Indiana (UND), Ecologie Systématique et Evolution (ESE), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-AgroParisTech-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Harbour porpoise; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-01066281; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-01066281/document; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-01066281/file/Alfonsi_PLoS_ONE_2012_-_copie.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044425.t001

International audience Field surveys have reported a global shift in harbour porpoise distribution in European waters during the last 15 years, including a return to the Atlantic coasts of France. In this study, we analyzed genetic polymorphisms at a fragment of the mitochondrial control region (mtDNA CR) and 7 nuclear microsatellite loci, for 52 animals stranded and by-caught between 2000 and 2010 along the Atlantic coasts of France. The analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial loci provided contrasting results. The mtDNA revealed two genetically distinct groups, one closely related to the Iberian and African harbour porpoises, and the second related to individuals from the more northern waters of Europe. In contrast, nuclear polymorphisms did not display such a distinction. Nuclear markers suggested that harbour porpoises behaved as a randomly mating population along the Atlantic coasts of France. The difference between the two kinds of markers can be explained by differences in their mode of inheritance, the mtDNA being maternally inherited in contrast to nuclear loci that are bi- parentally inherited. Our results provide evidence that a major proportion of the animals we sampled are admixed individuals from the two genetically distinct populations previously identified along the Iberian coasts and in the North East Atlantic. The French Atlantic coasts are clearly the place where these two previously separated populations of harbour porpoises are now admixing. The present shifts in distribution of harbour porpoises along this coast is likely caused by habitat changes that will need to be further studied.