DNA BARCODING OF FISH SPECIES BELONGING TO FAMILY BALISTIDAE PREVALENT ALONG THE COASTAL WATERS OF KARNATAKA
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Date
2022
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KARNATAKA VETERINARY, ANIMAL AND FISHERIES SCIENCES UNIVERSITY, BIDAR
Abstract
DNA barcoding is a method promising fast and accurate identification of animal species based on the sequencing of the 16SrRNA and mitochondrial c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. In this study, we explore the prospects for DNA barcoding in fish belonging to the Balistidae family, prevalent along the coast of Karnataka. The Balistidae family comprises of 42 species and 12 genera spread throughout the world. Fish belonging to this family are commonly referred as “Triggerfish”. Morphometric and meristic analysis of 270 individual fish in this study revealed the fishes to be grouped as Abalistes stellaris, Sufflamen fraentum, and Odonus niger species. However, a Principal Component Analysis performed on statistically normalised morphometrics data showed inter- and intra-morphological variations within the species. Calculated several meristic characters of A. stellaris, S. fraenatum, and O. niger, i.e. dorsal fin spines, dorsal fin rays, anal-fin rays, pectoral fin rays, ventral spines, caudal fin rays and gill rakers are in tandem with the earlier study. Significant differences were noticed between ventral spines, caudal rays, dorsal fin rays, dorsal fin spines, and gill rakers though rest of the characteristics did not indicate any major difference. For molecular identification using DNA barcoding, sequenced the 16S as well as the mitochondrial COI gene from the 3 currently recognized balistidae fish species, and combined these data with a further sequences from available sequences in NCBI database. The 16S rRNA gene sequences in this study showed a very low level of interspecific genetic distance and the species were readily distinguishable by COI barcodes as Abalistes stellaris, Sufflamen fraenatum, and Odonus niger. We discuss the taxonomic status of these species groups in light of our data, molecular and morphological.