Mitochondrial signatures for identification of grouper species from Indian waters

Abstract

Groupers are important commercial fish in many parts of the world. Accurate identification is critical for effective conservation assessment and fisheries management. Genetic barcodes provide a simple and reproducible method for the identification of species even in the absence of taxonomic expertise. The generation of reference barcodes from properly identified specimens is an important first step in this direction. Here, 36 species belonging to the subfamily Epinephelinae (Family: Serranidae) were collected from landings on the west coast of India and Port Blair, Andaman, and partial nucleotide sequence data of the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was generated. Barcodes for 13 species were developed from Indian waters for the first time. Analysis using the COI gene produced phylogenetic trees in concurrence with other multi-gene studies. Epinephelus fasciatus and E. areolatus were found to be a species complex, as hypothesized in other studies. The DNA barcodes developed in the study can be used for identifying species within Epinehelinae, where taxonomic ambiguity still exists. ARTICLE HISTORY

Overview of Gulf of Mottama Wetland (GoMW) & Size Distribution and Economic Status of Sea Bass in Myanmar

“…This study focused on morphological study of sea bass fish and economic value change in local area of Myanmar. By length and body weight of sea bass can generally obtain highest prices and the demands of sea bass in local area are higher more and more and the residents favor the taste of sea bass [6,8,10,70,115]. The more abundance populations of sea bass can be found in Kokko and Kyuntone villages than other villages along The Gulf of Mottama Wetland (GoMW).…”

“…According to the research of Rohan Pethiyagoda & Anthony C. Grill (2012), Lates uwisara can be distinguished from L. calcarifer [107,108,115,142] by possessing scales between the base of the third dorsalfin and lateral line; and having a lesser eye diameter of Lates uwisara in 4.4-4.7 % SL and that of L. calcarifer in 4.8-6.9% SL. (Hamilton, 1822) The representatives of sea bass are catadromous and they are born in sea water and then they spend most of their time in fresh water [10,18,95,96,150]. Sea bass inhabits freshwater, brackish, marine habitats such as streams, lakes, estuaries and coastal water [42,62,80,104,128,150,158].…”

“…The direct value of wetland fishes is local trading and international trading in Myanmar wetland areas. Ecosystem of Wetlands support resident fishes that both play vital roles in the aquatic -terrestrial trophic web [9,10,20,27] and provide recreational and commercial fisheries harvests worth billions of dollars annually [40,89,124,135]. The community structure of fishes can predict important informations for climatic signals [22,23,57,60,76,85,105,144] and also provide information about wetland conditions and health [67,68,70,75].…”

DNA barcoding of commercially important reef fishes in Weh Island, Aceh, Indonesia

“…To ensure the perpetuity of this biodiversity, particularly with its relationship to the community well-being, it is imperative that management efforts are in place. A reliable species list is one of the most crucial baseline data in developing fisheries management plan and essential for conservation and sustainable exploitation ( Basheer et al, 2017 ; Díaz et al, 2016 ; Pavan-Kumar et al, 2018 ; Ward, 2000 ). Earlier reports on reef fish identification in Weh Island had been based on morphological characters, and several species identification remains inconclusive ( Rudi et al, 2012b ).…”

“…DNA barcoding has been recognized for its effectiveness in species identification for its rapid and robust output based on the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. This technique has been utilized in species identification of marine fishes globally ( Basheer et al, 2017 ; Bingpeng et al, 2018 ; Mat Jaafar et al, 2012 ; Ward et al, 2005 ; Weigt et al, 2012 ; Zhang & Hanner, 2011 ). It has a wide range of applications including identification of species that have similar morphological characters ( Bingpeng et al, 2018 ), individuals at different developmental stages ( Hubert et al, 2010 ), damaged and incomplete specimens ( Wang et al, 2018 ), processed products i.e., food forensics ( Chin Chin et al, 2016 ; Marko et al, 2004 ), cryptic species and new species discovery ( Lim et al, 2016 ; Farhana et al, 2018 ).…”