Andreja Janzek, Tihana Ivanisevic: Phylogenetic
analysis of Cetacea comparing the control region of the mitochondrial DNA. Original scientific
student paper. Faculty of
Abstract
The objectives of this study were to quantify the
evolutionary relationship of cetacean species using control region of mitochondrial
DNA sequence variation. In the analysis we compared 20 control regions of
different animals who live in Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea; 3 fin whale (Balaenoptera
physalns) 4 blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), 2 sperm whale (Physeter
catodon) 2 long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) 1 striped
dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) 3 bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops
truncates) 3 harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) i 2 Cuvier's
beaked whale (Ziphius caviroslris). We took these sequences from gene
database on Internet (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/GenBank/) and with computer
programs compared control regions, describe patterns and made phyiogenetic
tree. The tree showed a typically classic systematic of species. In the future,
using this specific locus is possible to design primers for PCR reactions, so
we can distinguish different cetacean species in Croatian part of the Adriatic
Sea.