The Caulerpa is an economical important genus among chlorophyta, which was
initially described by Lamouroux in 1809, since then some 70 species of Caulerpa have
been identified. The Caulerpa species have complex morphology that provides some
characters that can be used in taxonomy, but extensive plasticity makes species
boundaries difficult to be defined. With advancement in the field of molecular biology,
it provides some alternatives for better understanding of taxonomy. In this study, PCRbased
molecular techniques were used in an attempt to differentiate two taxa of
Caulerpa based on tufA marker.
In this research work, specimens were collected from Pulau Redang,
Terengganu, Malaysia. Based on the morphology of the assimilators, specimens were
identified into two species namely Caulerpa serrulata var. serrulata and Caulerpa
serrulata var. boryana.
Caulerpa DNA was extracted using DNeasy Plant Mini Kit followed by
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), with amplification parameters optimized to obtain
reproducible results for gene sequencing.
Based on phylogenetic analyses, it is inferred that Caulerpa serrulata var.
serrulata and Caulerpa serrulata var. boryana are the same species although different
morphological characteristics were observed. Both the Maximum Parsimony (MP) and
Bayesian Inference (BI) analyses have shown the two varieties are monophyletic and
supported with high bootstrap values.
From this study, tufA marker is suitable in resolving the genetic relationship
between Caulerpa serrulata var. serrulata and Caulerpa serrulata var. boryana
