GENETIC VARIATION IN THE mtDNA 12S rRNA OF EDIBLE NEST SWIFTLET (Aerodramus fuciphagus)

Abstract

Edible Nest Swiftlets (Aerodramus fuciphagus) naturally inhabit limestone caves of South East Asia, but of recent, swiftlet ranching in man- made houses has become popular. These swiftlets are of commercial importance due to their unique nests produced wholly of the mucilaginous secretion from the salivary gland. Limited works are available and also lack of knowledge about spatial delineation of the species in Malaysia. The study was carried out to elucidate information on the genetic variability of A. fuciphagus analysing the mtDNA 12S rRNA. For the mtDNA analysis, DNA samples of extracted blood, tissue or nest of 28 EBN swiftlets from six locations were used. The DNA was subjected to PCR amplification. The 12S rRNA has fivehaplotypes. The Tajima‘sD showed a negative value (P>0.05), while the Fu‘s and Li‘s D value was also negative. The median joining network tree for 12S rRNA showed that EBN swiftlet populations could not be distinguished geographically. The shared haplotypes suggest high gene flow between locations and lack of spatial delineation which makes the marker unsuitable for DNA barcoding. However, the result showed thatthe overall genetic diversity in the species was relatively high indicating genetically healthy population.