Systematics of a Sea cucumbers of the Genus Holothuria (Aspidochirotida: Holothuroidea)and Phylogeography in H. Ieucospilota based on the Cytochrome-b Gene

We have incorporated a morphological approach using ossicles of sea cucumber (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) and partial sequences of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene and cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene in this study as addition to partial cytochrome b (cyt b) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene sequences for species identification. Beside Holothuria species including Holothuria leucospilota, species from other genera were also included in order to get a better view on the phylogenetic relationship of Holothuria species. 27 partial sequences of 16S rRNA mtDNA gene (Accession No.: FJ223854 � FJ223872) and COI mtDNA gene (Accession No.: FJ223873 - FJ223880) have been registered with GenBank, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), U.S. National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) prior to publications. Sea Cucumber Database, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia ( http://sea.cucumber.kos.iium.googlepages.com/) containing all results of this study � the first online database on sea cucumber in Malaysia � has been developed and the database can also be accessed worldwide from Malaysia Maritime Database (http://marin-dbase.com/)