Lack of population subdivision among the minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) from Icelandic and Norwegian waters based on mitochondrial DNA sequences

Genetic population structure of minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata from Greenland, the North East Atlantic and the North Sea probably reflects different ecological regions

“…Haplotypes published by Bakke et al (1996) representing the central part of the North Atlantic around Iceland and from the Barents Sea were included in the study.…”

“…Each sample was sequenced in both directions and the sequences were aligned using Sequencer 2.06. The haplotype designation used follows Bakke et al (1996). 266 Table 1.…”

“…The 16 polymorphic DNA microsatellite loci used in the study of North Atlantic minke whales, the nucleotide repeats, annealing temperature (°C) and allele sizes. PCR-conditions: denaturation at 95°C for 3 min, 7 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 45 s, first annealing temperature for 30 s, extension at 72°C for 5 s. 30 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 45 s, second annealing temperature for 30 s, extension at 72°C for 10 s, followed by 74°C for 10 min and cooling to 4°C, or 35 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 45 s, annealing temperature for 30 s, extension at 7°C for 10 s followed by 74°C for 10 min and cooling to 4°C Valsecchi & Amos (1996), g Waldick et al (1999) hierarchically in the following manner: (1) WG samples from different years were tested for homogeneity pairwise; (2) the combined (all sampling years) West Greenland sample was sub-divided into a group caught relatively early in the season (May and June) and later (July to October) -these 2 groups were tested against each other to detect potential inter-seasonal effect on population structure; (3) the combined samples from WG were tested against the combined CG sample; (4) CG was tested against CM; (5) all Norwegian samples (CM, ES, EB, EC, EN) were tested against each other; (6) for the 1998 samples alone WG was tested against the NE Atlantic samples (ES + EB + EC); (7) variation amongst WG, CG + CM, ES + EB + EC and EN was tested; and finally (8) to expand and improve regional and temporal comparisons the haplotype distributions described by Bakke et al (1996) for the central North Atlantic region west and north of Iceland and the Barents Sea were tested against the haplotype distribution observed in the present study. All tests were conducted with and without prior assumptions of statistical distributions of genotypes or haplotypes in order to avoid pooling of heterogeneous samples.…”

“…Previous studies applying various genetic techniques found indications of population sub-structuring in North Atlantic minke whales (Palsbøll 1989, Árnason & Spillaert 1991, Danielsdóttir et al 1992, Bakke et al 1996, Martinez et al 1997, Martinez & Pastene 1999. However, as these studies included samples taken in different years, it is unclear to what extent inter-annual variation influenced spatial comparisons.…”

MATRILINEAL GENETIC STRUCTURE AND FEMALE-MEDIATED GENE FLOW IN RED GROUSE (LAGOPUS LAGOPUS SCOTICUS): AN ANALYSIS USING MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

“…This metric was chosen over equivalents such as N ST because we make inference only about the populations sampled and not a larger collection of populations (Lynch and Crease 1990). The significance of ␥ ST , among all populations and also in individual pairwise comparisons, was ascertained using a permutation approach described in Bakke et al (1996). Individual haplotypes were permuted among sites while keeping sample sizes constant, and a new ␥ ST statistic was computed.…”