Martina Pauk: Sequencing of mitochondrial DNA control region of bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821). Diploma Thesis. Faculty of Science. Zagreb, 2007.

Abstract

The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is the only resident marine mammal species in Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. Studies of mitochondrial control region diversity arc invaluable in research of genetic variety and population structure. Internal reverse primer was designed and named „DUPr". Total genomic DNA was isolated from 24 bottlenose dolphin muscle tissues. Polymerase chain reaction with forward MTCRf and reverse DUPr primers yielded around 900 bp long fragment of mtDNA control region. Purified PCR products were sequenced with reverse DUPr primer and the resulting sequences were 679 base pair long. These sequences were alligned with sequences obtained with forward MTCRf primer and final fragments were 767 bp long. Further analysis was performed on 767 bp fragments and 5 unique haplotypes were identified with 23 polymorphic sites.