Molecular study of mollusca in Bandar Lengeh using 18S rRNA gene

Mollusca are one of the most diverse animal phyla whose phylogeny is considered as a controversial subject. Although some groups were traditionally classified as mollusca, they need to be identified again. High diversity of mollusca has created considerable taxonomic problems and despite their importance in marine biota, deep phylogenetic relationships of mollusca have scarcely been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine genetic diversity and differences between mollusca species in waters of Bandar Lengeh (Persian Gulf) of Iran. A clone library of the ribosomal small subunit RNA gene (18S rDNA) in the nuclear genome was constructed by PCR, and then, after examining the clones, selected clones were sequenced. The determined clone sequences were analyzed by a similarity search of the NCBI GenBank database using BLAST. Also, the fixation index (FST) factor was used in order to measure and understand the genetic differences between studied populations. In this study, seventeen sequences were identified belonging to two classes of Bivalvia and Gastropoda and they were used for phylogenetic analysis. According to the allele frequencies at each locus, FST value was significant in samples of Bandar Lengeh meaning that migration is in the lowest rate in the studied region. The present research project exhibited that clone library of 18S rDNA might be accounted as a beneficial tool to identify marine specimens and estimate the actual species diversity in marine environments. Moreover, these findings confirmed the effective role of molecular studies for the identification and taxonomy of speciesfrom the natural resources to obtain reliable data.