Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 12, 459-472, Copyright © 1995 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
IA van Pijlen, B Amos and T Burke
The genetic variability at six cloned minisatellite loci was analyzed in
minke whale populations from the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and
Antarctic Oceans. Three loci displayed only a few different alleles in each
of the three populations, with heterozygosity ranging from 0.00 to 0.47,
and three loci revealed many different alleles in at least two fo the three
populations, with heterozygosity ranging up to 0.98. Using small sample
sizes, samples from two adjacent Antarctic Management Areas were not found
to differ significantly in allele frequencies at any of the six loci. The
use of principal coordinate analysis to detect multilocus disequilibria was
explored. No significant evidence was found of intrapopulation
heterogeneity within the pooled Antarctic sample. Pronounced interoceanic
differences were observed at every locus, confirming the existence of
genetic isolation found earlier using more conventional marker systems. The
populations from the three oceans appear to have diverged to such a degree
that the hypervariable loci have had time to evolve independently and
arrive at different evolutionary stages in different populations. The
frequency of undetected "null" alleles is remarkably high in minke whale
populations compared to human populations and is probably a result of the
cloning protocol used. Minisatellite loci are shown to provide a powerful
population genetic tool, supplying levels of resolution appropriate to
different degrees of evolutionary divergence.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Patterns of genetic variability at individual minisatellite loci in minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata populations from three different oceans
Department of Zoology, Leicester University, United Kingdom.
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