Can DNA methylation contribute to explain morphological variability? The case of loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta

The loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta is a common and threatened sea turtle in the Mediterranean Sea. It is listed in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN 2012) and, although it is widely studied, little is currently known about the relationships between its phenotype and genetic variability. In the last few years some authors observed the presence of individuals, collected in different parts of the Mediterranean Sea, with a variable number of carapacial and plastron scutes. This variability, in some cases, makes difficult the sound identification of the species (Margaritoulis and Chiras, 2011; Turkozan et al. 2001; Oliver 2014). To …