Utility of North Atlantic right whale museum specimens for assessing changes in genetic diversity

We examined six historical specimens of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) using DNA isolated from documented baleen plat es from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sequences from t he mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region from these samples were compare d with those from a near-exhaustive survey (269 of approximately 320 indivi duals) of the remaining right whales in the western North Atlantic Ocean. O ur results suggest that there has been only relatively modest change in mat ernal lineage diversity over the past century in the North Atlantic right w hale population. Any significant reduction in genetic variation in the spec ies most likely occurred prior to the late nineteenth century. One historic al specimen was from the last documented female capable of propagating one of the maternal lineages in the population today; no females in the existin g population have been found to carry this mtDNA haplotype. Analysis of the only specimens from the eastern North Atlantic right whale population ever to be examined revealed that eastern and western North Atlantic right whal es may not have been genetically differentiated populations. Loss of gene d iversity experienced by North Atlantic right whales over the last century h as been modest and the six decades of protection have been successful in ma intaining much of the maternal lineage diversity that was present in the la te nineteenth century.