title: Mitogenomic phylogenetics of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus spp.): genetic evidence for revision of subspecies.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, La Jolla, California, United States of America. eric.archer@noaa.gov
authors.forename: Frederick I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.forename: Phillip A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.forename: Brittany L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Hancock-Hanser
authors.forename: Kelly M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Leslie
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bérubé
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Panigada
authors.forename: Barbara L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D050617:Fin Whale / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers