Molecular Identification and Genetic Diversity of Thalassia hemprichii Through DNA Barcoding Using Internal Transcribed Spacer gene (ITS) from Awur Bay Jepara, Indonesia

Abstract

Thalassia hemprichii is a type of seagrass that dominates in Awur Bay of Jepara. Conventional identification has many obstacles and the environmental pressure causes seagrass stand damage and incomplete. This leads to difficulty in morphological identification. Therefore, it is necessary to do molecular identification. DNA barcode using ITS gene is one method of molecular identification using short sequences that are efficient and have a high level of accuracy. The purposes of this research were to identify Thalassia hemprichii using DNA barcode of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS). The research methods includeds DNA extraction using CTAB, PCR amplification of ITS fragment, electrophoresis, DNA sequencing, and analysis with MEGA 6 and BLAST. The result of this research showed that all of the samples studied were Thalassia hemprichii. DNA barcode of ITS is a gene marker which capable of identifying seagrass species of Thalassia hemprichii.