Genetic V
Genetic Variation among Nine
Egyptian Gecko Species (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) Based on RAPD-PCR
Ramadan A. M. Ali
Zoology Dept., College for
Girls for Science, Arts and Education, Ain-Shams Univ., Heliopolis, Cairo,
Egypt.[email protected]
Abstract: The
RAPD-PCR in the present study was used to determine the genetic variation among
nine Egyptian gekkonid species; Tropiocolotes tripolitanus, Tropiocolotes
nattererii, Hemidactylus turcicus, Cyrtopodion scaber,Stenodactylus
petrii, Ptyodactylus guttatus, Ptyodactylus
hasselquistii, Tarentola mauritanica and Tarentola
annularis. The animals were captured from several localities from Egypt (Giza,
Sinai and Matruh governorates). A total of 94 bands were amplified by the
four primers OPAO4, OPBO3, OPB18 and OPCO1 with an average of 23.5 bands per
primer at molecular weights ranged from 1267 to 112 bp. The polymorphic
loci between species were 91 with percentage 96.8 %. The similarity
coefficients value between the nine gekkonid species are ranged from
0.313(31.3%) to 0.576 (57.6%) with an average of 0.42 (42%). The genetic
distance between the nine species was ranged from 0.424
(42.4%) to 0.687 (68.7%) with an average of 0.58 (58 %). The dendrogram
showed that, the nine gekkonid species separated from each other into two
clusters. The first cluster includes Tropiocolotes tripolitanus; Tropiocolotes
nattererii; Hemidactylus turcicus;Cyrtopodion scaber; Stenodactylus
petrii. The second cluster includes the rest of gekkonid species. The
cladeTarentola annularis is sister taxon to T. mauritanica and
the clade Ptyodactylus guttatus is sister taxon to P.
hasselquistii. It is also noted that, the genus Tropiocolotes is closer to the genus Cyrtopodion than
the other genera and the genus Tarentola is closer to the
genus Ptyodactylus than the other genera. It is
concluded that, the less similarity coefficient and the high genetic distance
value between the 9 gekkonid species indicates that, the nine gekkonid species
are not identical and separated from each other.
[Ramadan A. M. Ali. Genetic Variation among Nine
Egyptian Gecko Species (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) Based On RAPD-PCR. Life Sci J
2012;9(1):154-162]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 23
Key Words: Gekkonidae, RAPD-PCR, Phylogenetic Relationship, Dendrogram
