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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Deleterious Mutations in the Mitogenomes of Cetacean Populations
Biology, Vol.15(2), pp.1-15
2026
PMCID: PMC12837398
PMID: 41594934
Abstract
Cetaceans are artiodactyls adapted to live in the marine environment, and this group includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Although mitochondrial nucleotide diversity has been reported separately for many cetacean groups, the proportion of deleterious mutations in these populations is unknown. Furthermore, a comparison of mitogenomic diversities across all cetaceans is also lacking. To investigate this, we conducted a comparative genomic analysis of 2244 mitochondrial genomes from 65 populations across 32 cetacean species. We observed a 78-fold variation in mitogenomic diversity among cetacean populations, suggesting a large difference in genetic diversity. We used the ratio of nonsynonymous-to-synonymous diversities (dN/dS) to measure the proportion of deleterious mutations in the mitochondrial exomes. The dN/dS ratio showed a 22-fold difference between the cetacean population. Based on genetic theories, the large differences observed in the two measures could be attributed to differences in the effective sizes of the cetacean populations. Typically, small populations have low heterozygosity and a high dN/dS ratio, and the reverse is true for large populations. This was further confirmed by the negative correlation observed between heterozygosity and dN/dS ratios of cetacean populations. While our analysis revealed similarities in mitogenomic diversity between the endangered and least-concern cetacean species, the dN/dS ratio of the former was found to be higher than that of the latter. The findings of this study are useful for identifying the relative magnitude of reductions in the population sizes of different cetacean species. This will help conservation management efforts prioritise the use of limited resources, time, and effort to protect the cetacean populations that need immediate attention.
Details
- Title
- Deleterious Mutations in the Mitogenomes of Cetacean Populations
- Authors
- Matthew Freeman - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringUmayal Ramasamy - Griffith UniversitySankar Subramanian (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Biology, Vol.15(2), pp.1-15
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.3390/biology15020199
- ISSN
- 2079-7737
- PMID
- 41594934; PMC12837398
- Copyright note
- © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
- Data Availability
- The original data presented in the study are openly available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ (accessed on 5 June 2025). The in-house Python (ver. 3.12) scripts used in this study are available upon request.
- Grant note
- This research was supported by the funds from the University of the Sunshine Coast awarded to S.S.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991208976502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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