A preliminary investigation on genetics of small cetaceans in Turkey

In this study Black Sea harbour porpoise?s population genetic structure was investigated based on a new genetic study carried out and incorporating published records. Also collected bottlenose dolphin and striped dolphin samples? mitochondrial DNA nucleotide sequences were compared with the published sequences.The present study is aimed at examining the phylogenetic structure of the Black Sea harbour porpoise population, focusing on the variations of nucleotide sequences in the mitochondrial DNA, namely 16S rDNA, COI and Dloop. Phylogenetic structure was determined using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and bayesian inference methods.The results show that the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea samples genetically differed from other populations of the same species in different oceans. Consensus trees given by both maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood for Dloop sequences showed a distinct group formation. This genetically distinct group had samples from West Black Sea Coasts of Turkey including sampling areas Karaburun, Rumeli Feneri and İğneada. But because not all of the samples from the same location were found together in certain phylogenetic groups, it was not possible talk about distinct subpopulation formations. COI results revealed that the Black Sea samples were not significantly different from each other.