Abstract:
Genetic diversity is widely accepted as a foundation for future
organismal diversity and corresponding conservation efforts are directed at
preserving the existing genetic variation within endangered species. Green
turtle is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
We assessed the genetic diversity of the green turtle population nesting at
Kosgoda turtle rookery using six microsatellites. Skin tissue samples were
collected from 68 nesting females from May 2005 to April 2006. All six
microsatellite loci were highly polymorphic and a total of 149 alleles were
observed. The mean number of alleles per locus was 24.7 and the mean
observed and expected heterozygosities across all loci were 0.75 and 0.93,
respectively. Micro-Checker analysis suggested that the Kosgoda green
turtle population was possibly in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Although
the Kosgoda green turtle population is small, its high genetic diversity
among and within individuals suggests that the population may not be
currently undergoing a bottleneck.
