Enzyme polymorphism in Indian freshwater soft shell turtle Lissemys punctata

Abstract

Genetic diversity among four geographically isolated populations of an Indian freshwater turtle, Lissemys punctata, was studied using seven metabolically important isozyme/allozymes as genetic markers. A total of twenty-three alleles at fourteen protein-coding loci were identified, six of these loci were monomorphic and the remaining eight were polymorphic. The result suggests that the geographic populations of L. punctata sampled can be characterized by a total genetic diversity of 0.180 (mean HT) with an average of 1.64 alleles per locus. The average proportion of polymorphic loci per population was estimated to be 1.75. The UPGMA tree of genetic relationship indicated significant differentiation among populations. The results also showed that the geographical and genetic distances are not correlated in these populations of L. punctata.