Molecular phylogeny of commercially important lobster species from Indian coast inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences

Abstract

Lobsters constitute low-volume high-value crustacean fishery resource along Indian coast. For the conservation and management of this declining resource, accurate identification of species and larvae is essential. The objectives of this work were to generate species-specific molecular signatures of 11 commercially important species of lobsters of families Palinuridae and Scyllaridae and to reconstruct a phylogeny to clarify the evolutionary relationships among genera and species included in this study. Partial sequences were generated for all the candidate species from sampling sites along the Indian coast using markers like Cytochrome oxidase I (COI), 16SrRNA, 12SrRNA, and 18SrRNA genes, and analyzed. The genetic identities of widely distributed Thenus species along the Indian coast to be Thenus unimaculatus and the sub-species of Panulirus homarus to be P. homarus homarus were confirmed. Phylogeny reconstruction using the individual gene and concatenated mtDNA data set were carried out. The overall results suggested independent monophyly of Scyllaridae and Stridentes of Palinuridae. The interspecific divergence was found to be highest for the 12SrRNA compared with other genes. Significant incongruence between mtDNA and nuclear 18SrRNA gene tree topologies was observed. The results hinted an earlier origin for Palinuridae compared with Scyllaridae. The DNA sequence data generated from this study will aid in the correct identification of lobster larvae and will find application in research related to larval transport and distribution.

Population genetic structure of the shovel-nosed lobster Thenus unimaculatus (Decapoda, Scyllaridae) in Indian waters based on RAPD and mitochondrial gene sequences

“…Earlier studies and reports of the genus Thenus in India were based on the single species-Thenus orientalis (Chacko, 1967;Deshmukh, 2001;Kizhakudan et al, 2004a;Vijayakumaran & Radhakrishnan, 2011). However, in view of the species revision of the genus (Burton & Davie, 2007), the species distributed and caught widely along the coast was ascertained to be T. unimaculatus (Jeena et al, 2011). This bottom-dwelling species forms an important fishery along the northwest and southeast coasts (Radhakrishnan et al, 2013) and prefers sandy and muddy habitat of 10-50 m depth (FAO, 2010).…”

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“…In our study, the maximum ratio for TL/TW was found to be 0.33 which suggest that the value of this ratio need to be increased. During the period of our study, we did not come across any samples of T. orientalis and all samples were having the morphological and morphometric characters similar to (Jeena et al, 2011). COI gene is widely employed in molecular studies in T. unimaculatus (Burton and Davie, 2007;Palero et al, 2008;Jeena et al., 2011;Iamsuwansuk et al, 2012;Wongruenpibool and Denduangboripant, 2013;Jeena et al, 2016a;Jeena et al, 2016b).…”

“…Burton &Davie (2007) described T. unimaculatus based on the morphological and mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis. This species is currently known to be distributed in locations in the Indo-West Pacific Oceans near Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Mozambique (Burton and Davie 2007), Thailand (Iamsuwansuk et al, 2012;Wongruenpibool and Denduangboripant, 2013) and India (Jeena et al, 2011).…”

Stock Structure Analysis of Declining Shovel Nosed Lobster Thenus Unimaculatus (Burton and Davie, 2007)for Effective Management and Conservation Along the Indian Coast

“…The scyllarid lobster, Thenusunimaculatus, described earlier as Thenusorientalis (Chhapgar and Deshmukh 1964) is commonly known as sand lobster, slipper lobster, or shovel-nosed lobster. The species of shovel nosed lobsters available in Indian waters has been con rmed as Thenus unimaculatus (Jeena et al 2011). It is one of the important commercially exploited lobster species in India.…”