Studies on the population structure of hawksbill turtle (eretmochelys imbricata) from Indonesia using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences

Abstract

This is a collaboration of University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) with South East Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC). Genetic diversity of hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata, Linnaeus, 1970) population from Kimar, Belitung, Indonesia was analyzed using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences. All samples were amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method and were electrophoresed using agarose gel. The banding patterns of the amplified products were then visualized using UV light and purified using PCR purification kit before sending all the samples for sequencing. The sequenced data were analyzed using CHROMAS 2.33, ESEE3, Arlequin 3.11 and MEGA 3.0. Other samples from previous study done (Joseph, 2006) were also analyzed along with this study. Pairwise Fsr tests were conducted to obtain the population structure. Besides that, neighbour-joining tree of Kimura 2- parameter was also constructed to express the phylogenetic relationship between population. Extra haplotypes from the Caribbean based on the study by Bass et al. (1996) were obtained from Genbank to be rooted to the tree for comparison. Haplotype diversity (h) of the Kimar population was 0.60 and nucleotide diversity of 0.0096. This suggests that there is still hope to conserve the hawksbill turtles in Kimar despite of reported 88% population decline. Pairwise tests showed that nesting population from Kimar, Indonesia was genetically distinct compare to other nesting populations from Malaysia. This result was also supported by Neighbour-joining tree of Kimura 2-parameter.