Comparative study of the landlocked seals genetic diversity

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Abstract

For the first time, genetic diversity of neutral markers (15 microsatellite loci) was assessed for two species of the landlocked seals: Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica) and Caspian seal (P. caspica) in comparison with the oceanic species of the genus – ringed seal (P. hispida). The study found that both landlocked seals exhibit a reduced level of genetic diversity, with the Baikal seal having the lowest level. Both the Baikal seal and Caspian seal show a high probability of historical bottleneck effect, while the studied population of ringed seals showed no signs of a sharp decline in the past. Analysis of the data using the VarEff package suggests a different time to the most recent common ancestor for each of the three studied populations; for the Baikal seal this time is significantly shorter than for the Caspian seal.

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About the authors

S. I. Meschersky

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Moscow

I. G. Meschersky

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Moscow

M. А. Solovyeva

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Moscow

N. V. Kryukova

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Moscow

M.-R. D. Magomedov

Precaspian Institute of Biological Resources, Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Science

Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com

Сorresponding Member of the RAS

Russian Federation, Makhachkala

F. V. Klimov

“Kazakhstan Agency of Applied Ecology” LLP

Email: sergeymeshcherskiy@gmail.com
Kazakhstan, Almaty

V. V. Rozhnov

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: rozhnov-v-2015@yandex.ru

Аcademician of the RAS

Russian Federation, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Estimation of the probability of the time of existence of the last common ancestor (TMRCA, logarithm of the number of generations in the past) in three species of seals: S – P. sibirica, C – P. caspica, H – P. hispida.

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