Nasalis Larvatus Essay

POPULATION GENETICS STUDY OF NASALIS LARVATUS IN MALAYSIAN BORNEO USING CYTOCHROME C OXIDASE SUBUNIT I (COI) GENE

NORFARHANA BINTI MAZLAN

Animal Resource Science and Management

Department of Zoology

Faculty of Resource Science and Technology

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

ABSTRACT

The genetic variation and structure of seven Nasalis larvatus populations representing Sarawak and Sabah were examined using 1434 bp mitochondrial DNA Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region. A total of 47 faecal DNA samples were used. The COI gene sequence revealed very low genetic variation among N. larvatus populations. The phylogenetics analysis separated Sarawak populations from Sabah populations. Neutrality test and mismatch distribution analysis showed that these populations have undergone bottleneck effect and might have experienced a population change. Population genetics analysis also provides insight on explaining the genetic structure of the species suggesting that N. larvatus would have originated from Sabah and

Migration allows the transfer of genes (gene flow) between populations. The genetically different immigrant will alter the genetic composition of the population and limiting the genetic divergence of subpopulations (Okasha, 2012). Genetic mutation is the change in DNA that becomes the raw material for genetic variation. However, it has been hypothesised to increase extinction risk when deleterious mutation happens (Frankham, 2005; Wylie & Shakhnovich, 2012). The deleterious allele that fixed into a population will reduce fitness and cause the population decline to extinction (Lynch et al., 1993). Random mating is where the reproductively active individuals mate with other individual by chance, without influenced of the genotypic or phenotypic characters. The alleles have equal chance to be passed down to the next generation and maintain the genetic heterozygosity within a