title: Genetic identification and phylogenetic relationships of Indian clariids based on mitochondrial COI sequences.
abstract: Mitochondrial cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) sequence variation among the clariid fishes of India (Clarias magur, C. dussumieri and C. gariepinus) and their relationship with other representative clariids was studied in this work. Three species were sampled and together with 23 COI sequences from GenBank were used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships in the family Clariidae. The study revealed two clades: one consisting of the African species with C. dussumieri, and the other of Asian species suggesting the prevalence of intra-continental diversification of catfishes. This study further revealed that the genus Clarias is monophyletic. For the COI gene, the interspecies genetic divergence ranged from 0.056 to 0.182. The mean genetic difference between C. dussumieri and other selected African species in this study is 12.1%. It was also observed that the morphological similarity of C. dussumieri and C. magur was not replicated in the genetic level. Clarias dussumieri was more close to African catfish C. gariepinus thus indicating the utility of COI phylogeny to identify the well-known African-Asian relationships within catfishes. The results also showed that C. magur and C. batrachus are genetically distinct from each other.
authors.affiliation: a School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University , Kottayam , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: Aneesha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devassy
authors.affiliation: b Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre, NBFGR, CMFRI Campus , Cochin , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: a School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University , Kottayam , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Shajitha
authors.affiliation: a School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University , Kottayam , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: Reshma
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: John
authors.affiliation: c Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Kerala Agricultural University , Kumarakom , Kottayam , Kerala , India , and.
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Padmakumar
authors.affiliation: b Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre, NBFGR, CMFRI Campus , Cochin , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: V S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Basheer
authors.affiliation: d Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute , Cochin , Kerala , India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopalakrishnan
authors.affiliation: a School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University , Kottayam , Kerala , India .
authors.forename: Linu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mathew
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002397:Catfishes / Q000235:genetics*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D029941:Fish Proteins; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV
keywords: COI; Catfish, Clarias; mitochondrial genes