Analysis of genetic diversity in two different shell color of the giant triton snail (Chanoria tritonis) based on mitochondrial COI sequences

Xitong Cen¹, Gege Zhang¹, Huiru Liu², Gaoyou Yao¹, Panpan Xiong¹, Maoxian He³ and Wenguang Liu^3*

• ¹University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China, China
• ²Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aqua-Ecology and Aquaculture, Department of Fishery Sciences, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China, China
• ³South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

The giant triton snail (Chanoria tritonis) is widely distributed in tropical coral reefs in the Indo-West Pacific. Its distribution areas in China include the Penghu Islands, Hengchun Peninsula, and Xisha Islands. In this study, we conducted sequence analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (COI) gene to assess the affinity of C. tritonis with two different shell colors. The mitochondrial DNA COI sequences of 28 C. tritonis were all 603 base pairs in length, and seven haplotypes were subsequently detected from the samples. We constructed phylogenetic evolutionary trees using the neighbor joining, Maximum likelihood (ML), and unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) methods, constructed haplotype network diagrams, performed Tajima’s D and Fu’s neutrality tests, and calculated a gene flow of 11.78 and a genetic differentiation coefficient of 0.02078. Our results indicated that the population size remained relatively stable and the genetic differentiation between the two different shell colors was small. The mitochondrial COI gene fragments of the two different shell colors were sequenced and analyzed to accumulate information about the population genetics of C. tritonis and to provide a scientific basis for the conservation of its species resources.