The first assessment of the genetic diversity and structure of the endangered West Indian manatee in Cuba

The coastal waters of Cuba are home to a small, endangered population of West Indian manatee, which would benefit from a comprehensive characterization of the population's genetic variation. We conducted the first genetic assessment of Cuban manatees to determine the extent of the population's genetic structure and characterize the neutral genetic diversity among regions within the archipelago. We genotyped 49 manatees at 18 microsatellite loci, a subset of 27 samples on 1703 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and sequenced 59 manatees at the mitochondrial control region. The Cuba manatee population had low nuclear (microsatellites H