CLONING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A MICROSATELLITE IN THE MITOCHONDRIALCONTROL REGION OF THE AFRICAN SIDE-NECKED TURTLE, PELOMEDUSA-SUBRUFA

The nucleotide sequence of the African side-necked turtle mitochondria l control region and its flanking tRNA genes was determined. This 73% A + T-rich region is 1194 bp long. Several conserved motifs involved i n the regulation of the mitochondrial genome replication process, incl uding one conserved sequence block (CSB1), and three termination-assoc iated sequences were identified. The most remarkable feature found in this control region was the presence of six microsatellite-containing tandem repeats between the CSB1 motif and the tRNA(Phe) gene. The pote ntial usefulness of this microsatellite sequence for population-level studies is enhanced by its unique localization in the maternally inher ited mitochondrial molecule. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.