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Abdul-Manan MN, Mohd-Ridwan AR, Aifat NR, Osman NA, Abdul-Latiff MA, Dharmalingam S, Md-Zain BM. 2020. Short Communication: Effectiveness of nuclear gene in species and subspecies determination of captive orangutans. Biodiversitas 21: 3665-3669. Genetic identification of captive orangutans is of paramount importance in providing a correct identity that is essential for captive management. Thus, the utility of nuclear DNA sequences was tested in this study to identify the genetic identity of captive orangutans at Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island. Out of 24 DNA samples that were successfully extracted, only 10 orangutan samples were successfully sequenced for the von Willebrand factor (vWF) gene. From the results, this gene was able to separate the genus Pongo at the species level. Distance and character analyses indicated that a clear separation between P. pygmaeus and P. abelii at the species level. However, the degree of separation at species level was indicated in tree topology with moderate bootstrap values. At the subspecies level of P. pygmaeus, this gene was unable to show a clear separation between three Bornean subspecies. All the subspecies were formed clade together with each other. The vMF gene is a good nuclear gene for the study of phylogenetic relationships of orangutans in captivity at the species level, but the genetic identification at subspecies level in the genus level remains unclear. We suggest that future studies should involve multiple independent nuclear markers to increase the probability of getting reliable results.

Karuppannan KV, Aifat NR, Mohamed KA, Ahmad-Tahir NFD, Nordin FM, Yaakop S, Maldonado JE, Md-Zain BM. 2019. Genetic variations among selected wild Asian elephant populations in Peninsular Malaysia based on mitochondrial D-loop region DNA sequences. Biodiversitas 20: 2494-2502. Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is an important large mammal in Peninsular Malaysia and is completely protected by the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716). The conservation of this species requires strong information-based research, such as genetic evaluations. The aim of this study was to compare mitochondrial control region variation among selected elephants from the Taman Negara National Parks (TNNP) population with other selected populations in Peninsular Malaysia. DNA materials were extracted from fecal samples and amplified using partial mitochondrial D-loop region. Total 13 haplotypes with haplotype diversity (Hd) of 0.7524 were observed. A total of 34 base pair (bp) segregation sites were formed in 547 bp sequences. Both phylogenetic trees showed that a few individual elephants from the TNNP formed a clade together with individuals from other populations. The remaining individual elephants from TNNP formed a monophyletic clade supported by a high bootstrap value. Low genetic distance was detected among the tested populations, which proved that both individuals from the TNNP and other selected populations have similar genetic patterns. High gene flow among tested populations would impact on fitness and long-term resilience of the populations. This highly significant outcome provides strong baseline data for Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) in monitoring elephant populations in order to reduce number of human-elephant conflicts which indirectly minimize translocating conflict elephants to TNNP.