Sequence polymorphism in a novel noncoding region of Pacific oyster mitochondrial DNA.

Nucleotide sequence polymorphism in a 641-bp novel major noncoding region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA-NC) of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas was analysed for 29 cultured individuals within the Goseong population. A total of 30 variable sites were detected, and the relative frequency of nucleotide alteration was determined to be 4.68. Alterations were mostly single nucleotide substitutions. Transition, transversion, both transition and transversion, and both transversion and nucleotide deletion were observed at 18, 9, 2 and 1 sites, respectively. Among 29 specimens, 22 haplotypes were identified, and pairwise genetic diversity of haplotypes was calculated to be 0.988 from multiple sequence substitutions using the two-parameter model. A phylogenetic tree, obtained for haplotypes by the neighbor-joining method, showed a single cluster of linkages. The cluster comprised 11 haplotypes associating with 14 specimens, while the other 11 haplotypes associating with 15 specimens were scattered. This mtDNA-NC presenting a high nucleotide sequence polymorphism is a potential mtDNA control region. It therefore can serve as a genetic marker for intraspecies phylogenetic analysis of the Pacific oyster and is more useful than the less polymorphic mtDNA coding genes.