2026/03/10 by Éadin O’Mahony, Morgan L. McCarthy, Eric M. Keen +6 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Marine animal studies overview #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Genetic diversity and population structure
paper · pdf · doi:10.64898/2026.03.08.710374
ABSTRACT Preserving biodiversity requires the genetic monitoring of wild populations, but traditional invasive sampling techniques can impact animal welfare. For cetaceans, a promising non-invasive approach is the collection of exhaled respiratory vapour, or ‘blow’, to generate individual genetic profiles. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of generating whole genomes from the blow of humpback whales with data of sufficient quality for population genomics. A total of 58 blow samples from 26 Northeast Pacific humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) were collected in Gitga’at First Nation territory using a commercially available drone. The high endogenous content at 84% on average allowed us to generate low-coverage nuclear genomes (mean 2.3×, range 0.2×-3.5×) and high coverage mitochondrial genomes (mean 94×, range 7.7×-151.3×) for inference of population structure, diversity and phylogenomics. The reliability of the blow-derived genomes was demonstrated by direct comparison between replicate blow samples, as well as paired tissue samples from a subset of individuals.