Page 57 - Dedola2011

Results
Dual peaks of similar height, which could be interpreted as evidence of mitochondrial
pseudogenes in the nucleus (Numts) (Sorenson and Quinn, 1998) or heteroplasmy were
not observed in sequences' electropherograms. Furthermore, PCR products (resolved as
electrophoresis bands) did not show any occurrence of aspecificity, excluding the
possibility ofmultiple nuclear mtDNA-like sequences.

COI
We obtained a 338 base pairs (bp) long sequence alignment. Our dataset was

enlarged including 26 specimens belonging to four Grecian populations (Katsares et al.
2008) and 49 individuals from five Tunisian populations (Rabaoui et al. 2001) (see
Table l for details). JModelTest calculated as appropriate model of nucleotide

substitution the mode! TPM2uf+I+G with gamma shape y = 0.3670.

The 42 polymorphic sites (S) found defined 58 different haplotypes with an
average haplotype diversity (h) equal to 0.700 and a correspondent average nucleotide
diversity (n) equa! to 0.006. Grecian and Tunisian samples showed the lowest values of
h and 1r: (Table 2).

Median-Joining network analysis performed on the pooled dataset provided an
overall low leve! of divergence among the haplotypes (Fig. 2). With the merely
exception of a single Grecian individuai from Epanomi, the haplotypes diverged each
other for one/two point mutations only. furthermore most individuals were grouped into
five main haplotypes compatible with a sharp founder effects.. There was no clear
evidence of haplotypes geographic structuring at both local (among populations) and
regional (among basins) spatial scales among populations was evidenced (Fig. 2a).
Nonetheless, grouping samples according to seven Mediterranean macro-areas of

57

Gìan Luca Dedola: ANALISI DELLA VARIABILITÀ GENETICA DI PATELLA FéRRUGINEA, PATEL-LA ULl'SSIPONENSIS (MOLLUSCA: GASTROPODA) E PINNA
NOBILIS (MOLLUSCA: BIVALVIA): lLCONTRJBUTO DEl DATI MOLECOLARI ALLA CONSERVAZIONE DI SPECIE MINACCIATE - Tesi di douorato in Scienze
della natura e delle sue risorse · indiri7.zo BK>logi.a Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Sassarl