Population Structure of the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin as Determined byRestriction Endonuclease Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA (Revised Version)

摘要

Restriction fragment length polymorphisms of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were usedto test the discreteness of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) populations, with special emphasis on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Atlantic and Pacific dolphin mtDNA samples exhibited distinctly different haplotypes (approximately 2.4% sequence divergence), indicating a disruption to gene exchange. Within the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast mtDNA samples were also found to be distinct, differing by approximately 0.6%. The