Kinship clustering within an ecologically diverse killer whale metapopulation.

ABSTRACT: Metapopulation dynamics can be shaped by foraging ecology, and thus be sensitive to shifts in prey availability. Genotyping 204 North Atlantic killer whales at 1346 loci, we investigated whether spatio-temporal population structuring is linked to prey type and distribution. Using population-based methods (reflecting evolutionary means), we report a widespread metapopulation connected across ecological groups based upon nuclear genome SNPs, yet spatial structuring based upon mitogenome haplotypes. These contrasting patterns of markers with maternal and biparental inheritance are consistent with matrilineal site fidelity and philopatry, and male-mediated gene flow among demes. Connectivity between fish-eating and 'mixed-diet' (eating both fish and mammal prey) killer whales, marks a deviatio

SUBMITTER: Baumgartner CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11799346 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature