High genetic differentiation of Indo‐Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) along the Asian Coast of the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Abstract The Indo‐Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) is a vulnerable marine mammal species that inhabits shallow, coastal waters from Southeast China, southward throughout Southeast Asia, and westward around the Bay of Bengal to eastern India. Polymorphic microsatellites are useful for elucidating ecological and population genetics‐related questions. Here, 18 new polymorphic microsatellites were developed from S. chinensis genomic DNA by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Population genetic analyses were conducted on 42 S. chinensis individuals from three geographic locations, including the Xiamen Bay of China, the Western Gulf of Thailand, and Andaman Sea. Our microsatellite data revealed a strong and significant population structure among the three sampling regions (overall FST = 0.371, p = .001). Pairwise mutual information index also demonstrated high levels of genetic differentiation between different region pairs (values range from 0.272 to 0.339, p < .001). Moreover, Structure analysis inferred three genetic clusters, with the high assignment probabilities of 95.92%, 99.47%, and 99.68%, respectively. Principal coordinate analysis plots of individuals divided entire genotypes into three clusters, indicating high level of genetic differentiation. Our results indicated the strong genetic structure in S. chinensis populations is a result of geographic distances. Other factors such as environmental variables, anthropogenic interference, and social behavior may also have contributed to population differentiation.

Keywords

• cetacean
• genetic diversity
• humpback dolphin
• microsatellite genotyping
• population differentiation