Abstract:
Oliva elegans and O. reticulata are two of the most common Oliva
species found in Batangas. Since marked morphological differences may
sometimes be confusing in classifying these species, their genetic diversity
may serve as an alternative criterion. Morphometric and random amplified
polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analyses were employed to determine the
genetic variation between the two species. The optimized PCR conditions
of Chua and Panlilio (2002) were reproducible for RAPD analysis of O.
elegans and O. reticulata. The calculated morphometric distance between
the two species using SPSS version 11.01 was 0.001 while the genetic
distance was 0.4191 as calculated by Popgene version 1.32. The
dendrogram based on morphometric data clustered the two species closer
while the dendrogram based on RAPD profiles distantly clustered the two
Oliva species. Results showed that there is significant genetic separation
between them despite their morphological similarity.
