Amino Acid Analysis of Cytochrome C Oxidase Subunit I (COI) of Indian Testudines

Limited molecular examinations are sometimes difficult to differentiate 31 morphologically distinct Indian testudine species. Mitochondrial genes have recurrently been used as molecular markers in various productive evolutionary studies. The total 73 available barcode sequences (621bp) of testudine species were acquired from public database. The total nucleotide variation was found to be 293 positions but the amino acid variation was found in only 57 positions among the all turtle and tortoise species. The first codon position in Indian testudines was more GC bias (54%) compared to the other second and third codon position. The highest substitutions were found in Non polar group (0.03% - 16.17%) compared to the other groups, by checking their different codon positions. The minimum amino acids informative sites within the COI barcode sequences may be practicable for discriminating all Indian testudine species.