Molecular Analysis of Sergestid Shrimp Acetes Spp. From Coastal Water of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo Using CO1 Sequence

Molecular analysis is an alternative to the conventional method of species identification. Misidentification of sergestid shrimp Acetes using morphological assessment data could occur due to its small size and the requirement of skilled microscope personnel. This study aims to evaluate the diversity of Acetes in Sarawak coastal water using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) gene analysis. The samples were collected from three sampling sites namely Miri, Lundu and Telaga Air, Sarawak. Based on CO1 gene analysis, two Acetes species were revealed, namely Acetes erythraeus and A. serrulatus with intraspecific variation of 0.20%-2.40% and 0.20%-1.19%, respectively. Besides, the diversity of this species based on geographical pattern could be observed, with two subclades of A. erythraeus (Miri, Sarawak and Lundu, Sarawak) and A. serrulatus (Telaga Air, Sarawak and west coast of Malaysia). The phylogenetic trees show that both species are reciprocally monophyletic. This finding implies that COI gene is a reliable genetic marker in species identification of Acetes.

Keywords: CO1 gene; Acetes; monophyletic; biodiversity

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                                            E-mail: hruhana@unimas.my