| Abstrak/Abstract |
Abstract. Sumatran elephant is the only subspecies of Asian elephants that receive a critically endangered status from the International Union for Conservation and Nature Resources (IUCN). Identifying the genetic marker of Sumatran elephants is, therefore, important for their conservation. This study aimed to identify the individual of Sumatran elephant based on specific mitochondrial DNA markers of the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COX2) gene. It is such an explorating research, because Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) have been limited data and research about the genetic of Sumatran elephant, especially in COX2. Forward and reverse sequencing of PCR products was conducted using the primary (COX2) from Sumatran elephant samples. The results of subsequent gene sequencing were aligned with sequences of other Asian elephants from Genbank using Clustal W software and analyzed using the MEGA program version 6.06. The analysis of genetic distance based on COX2 constituent nucleotides calculated using the Kimura 2-parameter method showed that the genetic distance between Elephas maximus sumatranus and Elephas maximus outside Sumatra was 0.25%. Phylogenetic trees analyzed using maximum-likelihood based on nucleotide sequences is high homogeneity; the ratio of Elephas maximus sumatranus with Elephas maximus shows levels of nucleotide mutations which are nine nucleotides and four nucleotides. These results indicated that the COX2 gene is could not use to individual identification in Sumatran elephant species because of high homogeneity in intraspecies, and it could use for interspecies divergence that clustered in Asian elephant clade.
Keywords: COX2 gene, Elephas maximus sumatranus, genetic diversity, mitochondrial DNA, Sumatran elephant
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