A novel mitochondrial intergenic spacer reflecting population structure of Pacific oyster.

Nucleotide sequence divergence in a novel major mitochondrial DNA intergenic spacer (IGS) of Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas was analyzed for 29 cultured individuals within the Goseong population (Korea). A total of 7 variable sites were detected within the IGS, and the relative frequency of nucleotide alteration was determined to be 1.16%;. All alterations were due to a single nucleotide substitution, and 5 transitions and 2 transversions were observed. Among 29 specimens, only 8 haplotypes could be identified, and 6 of the haplotypes were unique to particular specimens. Pairwise genetic diversity of all 8 haplotypes was calculated to be 0.412+/-0.134 from multiple sequence substitutions based on the two-parameter model. The phylogenetic tree obtained for these haplotypes according to the neighbor-joining method illustrated a single cluster of linkages, which comprised 5 haplotypes associated with 23 specimens, while the other 3 haplotypes associated with 6 specimens were scattered. The results indicate that the IGS is higher polymorphic and thus more suitable as a genetic marker for population structure analysis of Pacific oyster than the mtDNA coding regions, such as cytochrome c oxidase I and 16S ribosomal RNA genes.