Journal Article

Mitogenomic phylogenetics of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus spp.): genetic evidence for revision of subspecies

Morin, Phillip A, Bérubé, Martine, Taylor, Barbara L, Robertson, Kelly M, Leslie, Matthew S, Archer, Frederick I, Panigada, Simone, Hancock-Hanser, Brittany L

2013

Overview

There are three described subspecies of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus): B. p. physalus Linnaeus, 1758 in the Northern Hemisphere, B. p. quoyi Fischer, 1829 in the Southern Hemisphere, and a recently described pygmy form, B. p. patachonica Burmeister, 1865. The discrete distribution in the North Pacific and North Atlantic raises the question of whether a single Northern Hemisphere subspecies is valid. We assess phylogenetic patterns using ~16 K base pairs of the complete mitogenome for 154 fin whales from the North Pacific, North Atlantic--including the Mediterranean Sea--and Southern Hemisphere. A Bayesian tree of the resulting 136 haplotypes revealed several well-supported clades representing each ocean basin, with no haplotypes shared among ocean basins. The North Atlantic haplotypes (n = 12) form a sister clade to those from the Southern Hemisphere (n = 42). The estimated time to most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) for this Atlantic/Southern Hemisphere clade and 81 of the 97 samples from the North Pacific was approximately 2 Ma. 14 of the remaining North Pacific samples formed a well-supported clade within the Southern Hemisphere. The TMRCA for this node suggests that at least one female from the Southern Hemisphere immigrated to the North Pacific approximately 0.37 Ma. These results provide strong evidence that North Pacific and North Atlantic fin whales should not be considered the same subspecies, and suggest the need for revision of the global taxonomy of the species.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Analysis / Animal behavior / Animal Distribution / Animals / Aquatic mammals / Balaenoptera physalus / Base pairs / Base Sequence / Basins / Bayes Theorem / Bayesian analysis / Biology / Cetacea / DNA Primers - genetics / Fin Whale - classification / Fin Whale - genetics / Genome, Mitochondrial - genetics / Haplotypes / Haplotypes - genetics / High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Marine / Mitochondrial DNA / Models, Genetic / Molecular Sequence Data / Northern Hemisphere / Ocean basins / Oceans / Oceans and Seas / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / Southern Hemisphere / Species Specificity / Taxonomy / Underwater resources / Whales