Genetic variability in Guadalupe fur seals.
The Guadalupe fur seal (Arctocephalus townsendi) population underwent one or two severe bottlenecks due to commercial sealing in the late 19th century. Since then the protected population has been growing steadily around their only rookery, Isla de Guadalupe, Mexico. We probed both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes using multilocus nuclear DNA profiling and mitochondrial DNA sequencing to estimate the level of genetic variability of the present population. Unlike other pinniped populations that have experienced similar historical bottlenecks, such as Hawaiian monk seals and northern elephant seals, high levels of genetic variability were found.
Bernardi
G
G
Department of Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064, USA. bernardi@biology.ucsc.edu
Fain
S R
SR
Gallo-Reynoso
J P
JP
Figueroa-Carranza
A L
AL
Le Boeuf
B J
BJ
D000818:Animals; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005260:Female; D046069:Fur Seals / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008297:Male; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA