Postcopulatory selection for dissimilar gametes maintains heterozygosity in the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Although small populations are expected to lose genetic diversity through genetic drift and inbreeding, a number of mechanisms exist that could minimize this genetic decline. Examples include mate choice for unrelated mates and fertilization patterns biased toward genetically dissimilar gametes. Both processes have been widely documented, but the long-term implications have received little attention. Here, we combined over 25 years of field data with high-resolution genetic data to assess the long-term impacts of biased fertilization patterns in the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Offspring have higher levels of microsatellite heterozygosity than expected from this gene pool (effect size = 0.326, P < 0.011). This pattern is not due to precopulatory mate choice for genetically dissimilar mates (P < 0.600), but instead results from postcopulatory selection for gametes that are genetically dissimilar (effect size = 0.37, P < 0.003). The long-term implication is that heterozygosity has slowly increased in calves born throughout the study period, as opposed to the slight decline that was expected. Therefore, this mechanism represents a natural means through which small populations can mitigate the loss of genetic diversity over time.

Detecting recent speciation events: the case of the finless porpoise (genus Neophocaena).

Recent speciation events provide important insights into the understanding and conservation of Earth's biodiversity, representing recent adaptations to a changing environment and an important source of future evolutionary potential. However, the most frequently applied criterion for molecular-based speciation investigations, that of reciprocal monophyly of mitochondrial sequences, overlooks recent speciation events where insufficient time has passed for fixed molecular differences to develop between putative species. Two morphologically distinguishable forms of finless porpoise (genus Neophocaena) exist in sympatry in the strait of Taiwan, however the taxonomic relationship of these different forms is controversial. To test the hypothesis that the two forms represent different species, a study was conducted based on morphological characters and microsatellite and mitochondrial markers. The data suggest that the two forms are highly differentiated in terms of both morphology and genetic characteristics, despite being sympatric, and therefore represent different species as defined by the biological species concept. Moreover, the two forms appear to have been reproductively isolated since sharing a common ancestor prior to the last major glaciation event approximately 18 000 years ago. However, this represents an insufficient amount of time for reciprocal monophyly to have developed, and thus previous studies based on this criterion have overlooked this speciation event and resulted in incorrect taxonomic classification of these forms.

Patterns of male reproductive success in a highly promiscuous whale species: the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Parentage analyses of baleen whales are rare, and although mating systems have been hypothesized for some species, little data on realized male reproductive success are available and the patterns of male reproductive success have remained elusive for most species. Here we combine over 20 years of photo-identification data with high-resolution genetic data for the majority of individual North Atlantic right whales to assess paternity in this endangered species. There was significant skew in male reproductive success compared to what would be expected if mating was random (P < 0.001). The difference was due to an excess of males assigned zero paternities, a deficiency of males assigned one paternity, and an excess of males assigned as fathers for multiple calves. The variance in male reproductive success was high relative to other aquatically mating marine mammals, but was low relative to mammals where the mating system is based on resource- and/or mate-defence polygyny. These results are consistent with previous data suggesting that the right whale mating system represents one of the most intense examples of sperm competition in mammals, but that sperm competition on its own does not allow for the same degree of polygyny as systems where males can control access to resources and/or mates. The age distribution of assigned fathers was significantly biased towards older males (P < 0.05), with males not obtaining their first paternity until approximately 15 years of age, which is almost twice the average age of first fertilization in females (8 years), suggesting that mate competition is preventing younger males from reproducing. The uneven distribution of paternities results in a lower effective population size in this species that already has one of the lowest reported levels of genetic diversity, which may further inhibit reproductive success through mate incompatibility of genetically similar individuals.