Museum specimens of a landlocked pinniped reveal recent loss of genetic diversity and unexpected population connections.

ABSTRACT: The Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is endemic to Lake Saimaa in Finland. The subspecies is thought to have originated when parts of the ringed seal population of the Baltic region were trapped in lakes emerging due to postglacial bedrock rebound around 9000 years ago. During the 20th century, the population experienced a drastic human-induced bottleneck. Today encompassing a little over 400 seals with extremely low genetic diversity, it is classified as endangered. We sequenced sections of the mitochondrial control region from 60 up to 125-years-old museum specimens of the Saimaa ringed seal. The generated dataset was combined with publicly available sequences. We studied how genetic variation has changed through time in this subspecies and how it is phylogenetically re

SUBMITTER: Heino MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9849707 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature