Genetic differences between western and eastern gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus)

Abstract

Molecular data were used to examine the differentiation between the western and eastern gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) populations. Control region sequences were generated from samples collected in the western Pacific (n = 45) and eastern Pacific (n = 120). There were 36 unique haplotypes identified. Ten haplotypes were represented in the western samples, and 33 in the eastern samples. Seven of these haplotypes were shared between populations, leaving three haplotypes that were only seen in the western samples and 26 only in the eastern. Although there were no fixed (diagnostic) differences between the western and eastern groups, they were significantly different in their haplotype frequency distributions and should be considered as separate populations. None of the 33 haplotypes found in the eastern samples had a frequency of over 11%, yielding an estimated haplotypic diversity of 0.95. This finding indicates that the reduction in abundance due to whaling may not have had a great effect on the haplotypic diversity of the eastern population, although the loss of rare haplotypes may still have occurred and would be difficult to detect. In contrast, the western group was dominated by two haplotypes, which represented over 77% of all individuals sampled, resulting in a substantially lower haplotypic diversity of 0.70. The lack of fixed differences between the two populations and frequency of shared haplotypes renders these data inappropriate for forensic applications at the population level.