DNA barcoding and phylogenetic relationship of two fish species of genus Garra (Family: Cyprinidae) from Aravalli region of Southern Rajasthan based on mtDNA COI sequences

Abstract

The genus Garra (stone sucker), Family Cyprinidae, consists of a group of species that are remarkably similar in morphology. These species are often difficult to distinguish based on external morphological approach. To resolve the existing uncertainty about the relationships and groups of these fishes, an attempt has been made to study the phylogenetic relationships of Garra gotyla and Garra mullya using mtDNA COI gene sequences from Aravalli region of Southern Rajasthan. The sequences were submitted to NCBI GenBank to establish and validate the taxonomical identification of the samples. A total of 5 COI sequences were generated. The overall GC content of Garra gotyla and Garra mullya were 44.13 and 43.00% respectively. The genetic distance within groups was 0.001 and 0.01 for G. gotyla and G. mullya respectively. The Neighbour-joining tree of two fish species using COI gene data revealed two distinct groups with 0.157 divergence. DNA barcode discriminated congeneric species without any confusion. The study strongly validated the efficiency of COI as an ideal marker for DNA barcoding of Indian freshwater fishes.