Genetic Distances in Three Ascidian Species determined by PCR Technique

Seven oligonucleotides primers were shown to generate the shared loci, specific loci, unique shared loci to each species and shared loci by the three species which could be obviously scored. In the present study, 7 oligonucleotides primers produced 401 total loci in the Styela clava (SC) species, 390 in the Halocynthia roretzi (HR) and 434 in the Styela plicata (SP), respectively. Seven oligonucleotides primers generated 275 specific loci in the SC, 341 in the HR and 364 in the SP species, respectively. The oligonucleotides primer BION-23 generated 28 unique loci to each species in the SP species. Especially, the oligonucleotides primer BION-25 produced 7 unique loci to each species, which were identifying each species in the SP species. BION-17 distinguished 21 shared loci by the three ascidian species, major and/or minor fragments of sizes, which were identical in almost all of the samples. Based on the average bandsharing values of all samples, the similarity matrix ranged from 0.519 to 0.774 in the SC species, from 0.261 to 0.683 in the HR species and from 0.346 to 0.730 in the SP species. As regards average bandsharing value (BS) results, individuals from SC species (0.661±0.081) exhibited higher bandsharing values than did individuals from HR species (0.555±0.074) (P<0.05). The dendrogram obtained by the seven oligonucleotides primers indicates three genetic groups. In three ascidian species, the shortest genetic distance (0.071) exhibiting significant molecular difference was also between individual no. 20 and no. 21 within the SP species.