Molecular Phylogenetic Relations of Achatina fulica Based on Partial Sequence of COI Gene

Abstract

The Giant African snail (Achatina fulica) is known to be a highly widespread and invasive species. However, none of the studies in India have shown whether there is any phylogenetic structure within the African giant snails of the Indian subcontinent. We have collected a sample of Achatina fulica from Odisha state, India and built a molecular phylogeny of achatinoid and non achatinoid taxa from across its distribution using a mitochondrial gene to infer whether the sample from Odisha is nested within the achatinoid taxa and also to notice whether the A. fulica is more closely related to the conspecifics from the Indian subcontinent or otherwise. Our results indicate a strong support for the monophyly of achatinoid taxa with our focal sample nested deep within the clade and branched with conspecifics from other regions of the Indian subcontinent. In addition, we also show that the family Orthalicidae is paraphyletic with respect to Streptaxida, a pattern that needs to be explored further in future studies.