Abstract

Sea turtle populations around the world face rapid decline due to the effect of anthropogenic and environmental factors. Among the affected populations are those of hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), which is why a greater effort is currently being made in their monitoring and tracing. The intragenic degree of heteroplasmic mutations, commonly associated with diseases of variable symptoms, has not been analyzed in these species. In this study, heteroplasmy in the complete mitogenome (mtDNA) of three loggerhead turtles and one hawksbill turtle was identified from data obtained by RNAseq. Individuals Cc3, Ei1, Cc1 and Cc2 presented 0.3, 1.7, 1.8 and 7.1% of heteroplasmic mutations in all their mtDNA, respectively. The protein-coding genes that presented the highest percentage of heteroplasmy were ND4 and ND5 in individual Cc2 with 16 and 38.6%, respectively. Of the tRNA genes, only tRNA^Tyr was heteroplasmic in the four individuals with 5.63% (Cc1), 25.35% (Ei1 and Cc2) and 49.3% (Cc3). In this study, we identified the critical sites of heteroplasmy in each individual and the genetic variability of their mitogenomes. The data obtained represents the baseline for future projects that evaluate the population status of these species.

摘要

由于人为和环境因素的影响，世界各地的海龟种群面临快速下降。受影响的种群包括玳瑁 ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) 和红海龟 ( Caretta caretta ))，这就是为什么目前在监测和追踪方面付出了更大努力的原因。尚未在这些物种中分析异质突变的基因内程度，通常与不同症状的疾病相关。在这项研究中，从 RNAseq 获得的数据中鉴定了三只红海龟和一只玳瑁的完整有丝分裂基因组 (mtDNA) 的异质性。个体 Cc3、Ei1、Cc1 和 Cc2 在其所有 mtDNA 中分别呈现 0.3、1.7、1.8 和 7.1% 的异质突变。异质性百分比最高的蛋白质编码基因是个体 Cc2 中的ND4和ND5，分别为 16% 和 38.6%。在 tRNA 基因中，只有 tRNA ^Tyr在四个个体中是异质的，分别为 5.63% (Cc1)、25.35% (Ei1 和 Cc2) 和 49.3% (Cc3)。在这项研究中，我们确定了每个个体中异质性的关键位点及其有丝分裂基因组的遗传变异性。获得的数据代表了评估这些物种种群状况的未来项目的基线。