Phylogenetic study of West African Manatee (<i>Trichechus senegalensis</i> link (1708) along River Benue, Nigeria

Abstract

The Phylogenetic study of West African Manatee was carried out to determine the relatedness of the same species at two distant locations Lokoja and Makurdi along River Benue in Nigeria.DNA was extracted and sequenced according to standard protocols. The result indicated that transition/transversion rate /ratios are k₁ = 2.245 (purines) and k₂ = 0.00 (pyrimidines). The estimated transition/transversion bias R = 0.701..The average population coefficient of evolutionary differentiation (D=0.013±0.004) was 38.5% less than the intra-population value (D=0.018±0.006). K2P distance for nucleotide diversity shows that the Lokoja A (LA) sample is close to the Makurdi B (MB) sample while MB is closer to Lokoja B (LB).In terms of the phylogenetic tree the result indicates that the species Lokoja A is more closely related to Makurdi than it is to Lokoja B.It is either that Lokoja A migrated to Lokoja from Makurdi or the sample was taken there by the fishermen.

Keywords: phylogenetic, west African manatee, Benue