Genetic Diversity in Populations of Sepiella maindroni Using 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Analysis

Part of the 16S rRNA gene is amplified with PCR and sequenced for 5 populations of com-mon Chinese cuttlefish Sepiella maindroni: three from the South China Sea, one from East China Sea and one from Japan. The result shows that a total of 5 nucleotide positions are found to have gaps or insertions of base pairs among these individuals, and 13 positions are examined to be variable in all the sequences, which range from 494 to 509 base pairs. All of the individuals are grouped into 7 haplotypes (h1-h7). No marked genetic difference is observed among those populations. All of the individuals from Nagasaki belong to hl and the h3 haplotype is found only in the coastal waters of China. A(?)G transition in Nucleotide 255 is suggested to be taken as a kind of genetic marker to identify the populations distributed in East-South China Sea and the Nagasaki waters of Japan.