Genetic diversity of sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Kish and Queshm Islands using D-loop region of mitochondrial Genome sequencing

Abstract

  Study of genetic diversity of sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) was conducted using of sequencing of mitochondrial DNA (D-loop region) in the Persian Gulf. 40 dead embryos were collected from the Kish and Queshm Islands. The D-loop region of mitochondrial gene was partially sequenced and phylogenetic relationships between them were obtained. In this expriment 5 polymorphism and 6 haplotype locations were obtained. Nucleotide and haplotype diversity were 0.82 and 0.001 for Qeshm Island 0.56 and 0.002 for Kish Island, respectively. Total haplotype diversity was calculated as 0.71, which showed low genetic diversity in the study areas. The data also was established very high rates of immigration between the populations of two mentioned islands, as the population of turtles in the two islands are considered as a one population. As a point of geography evolutionary, comparing our data with data from previous studies that had been downloaded from a gene bank showed that the population of turtles of the Persian Gulf had been crossed from the Pacific and Oman Sea into this area. On the other hand, evidence of migration of these populations to the west areas was not found.