Probing the phylogenetic relationships of a few newly recorded intertidal zoanthids of Gujarat coast (India) with mt DNA COI sequences

Abstract

The present study reports the phylogenetic relationship of six zoanthid species belonging to three genera, Isaurus, Palythoa, and Zoanthus identified using systematic computational analysis of mtDNA gene sequences. All six species are first recorded from the coasts of Kathiawar Peninsula, India. Genus: Isaurus is represented by Isaurus tuberculatus, genus Zoanthus is represented by Zoanthus kuroshio and Zoanthus sansibaricus, while genus Palythoa is represented by Palythoa tuberculosa, P. sp. JVK-2006 and Palythoa heliodiscus. Results of the present study revealed that among the various species observed along the coastline, a minimum of 99% sequence divergence and a maximum of 96% sequence divergence were seen. An interspecific divergence of 1-4% and negligible intraspecific divergence was observed. These results not only highlighted the efficiency of the COI gene region in species identification but also demonstrated the genetic variability of zoanthids along the Saurashtra coastline of the west coast of India.

First record of Zoanthus gigantus Reimer & Tsukahara, 2006 (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia) from Indian waters, South Asia

“…Studies describing the occurrence of zoantharian along the coast of the Indian subcontinent were carried out by Hornell (1910), Bhattiji (2010), Kaladhran et al (2011), Pandya et al (2013 and Trivedi et al (2014). Based on mt DNA COI sequences, the phylogentic relationship of zoantharians was studied by Joseph et al (2014) who reported the occurrence of 6 species from the Kathiawar Peninsula. Kumari et al (2015) studied the distribution pattern and community structure of 7 different species of zoantharians in 3differ-ent genera (Isaurus, Palythoa, and Zoanthus) along the Saurashtra coast.…”

Marine Macrobenthos of NorthWest India-Reviewing the Known and Unknown

“…The study demonstrated the existence of six haplotypes of C. karachiensis with phenotypic plasticity in the study region, suggesting initiation of the speciation. Phylogenetic analysis byJoseph et al (2016a) proved efficacy of COI gene in distinguishing six zoanthid species from the Saurashtra coast. Detailed taxonomic investigation of a new polychaete species Heterospio indica from NWI coast byParapar et al (2016) was complemented with molecular analysis where 18S and COI genes were deposited in GenBank and represented the first sequencing of the species of Heterospio belonging to monogeneric family Longosomatidae Rengaiyan and Ingole (2018).…”