Mehdi Mohammadi

The genetic diversity of the eagle-beaked sea turtle population (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Persian Gulf was studied using the d-loop sequencing method of the mitochondrial genome. 20 dead turtle embryos were collected from Qeshm and Kish islands. Approximately 890 bp was amplified and sequenced from the d-loop region of the mitochondrial genome. In this study, 14 polymorphism sites and 7 haplotypes were obtained, all of which are new haplotypes and have not been reported to the gene bank. Haplotypic and nucleotide diversity were calculated for Qeshm Island as 0.77 and 0.001, respectively, and for Kish Island as 0.64 and 0.002, respectively. The total haplotypic diversity was calculated to be 0.69, which indicates the low genetic diversity of the region. The data show a very high rate of migration and traffic between the two islands, so that the population of turtles on the two islands is practically a single population. From the point of view of evolutionary geography, comparing our data with data from previous studies downloaded from the Gene Bank showed that the population of Persian Gulf turtles enters the region through the Pacific Ocean and the Oman Sea, and these populations They do not migrate to this area from the west.