A study on the genetic diversity of Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807; Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Turkey

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been widely employed in phylogeographic and phylogenetic studies. In the present study, the genetic identification of the scorpion Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) was carried out by using the 16S mitochondrial gene, since this scorpion represents the most import...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases
Main Authors: O Ozkan, C Ahmet, K Zafer
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SciELO 2010
Subjects:
PCR
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-91992010000400010
https://doaj.org/article/9b5c55098e2c4e00b1caa244daa973aa
Description
Summary:Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been widely employed in phylogeographic and phylogenetic studies. In the present study, the genetic identification of the scorpion Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) was carried out by using the 16S mitochondrial gene, since this scorpion represents the most important species in Turkey regarding scorpionism and antivenom production. Two genetic groups were found according to the sequence analysis results, while five different loci at the nucleotide level presented genetic variation in the 16S region when compared to a known A. crassicauda sequence data (GenBank, AJ277598). Nucleotide variations found in the current work constitute the first descriptive report for A. crassicauda. Moreover, future studies may enlighten the genetic and venom composition variations for this scorpion species.