Journal of Environment and Sociobiology

Shantanu Kundu ¹, Kulendra Chandra Das ¹, Sankar Kumar Ghosh ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Biotechnology, Assam University, Silchar-788011, Assam, IN

Abstract

The purpose of DNA barcodes for the rapid and accurate identification of wild species is one of the satisfactory and promising applications in forensic sciences. Here we developed eight 598 by sequences of COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) locus for the accurate identification of commercialized turtle samples collected from different markets of East and Northeast India.The studied samples were successfully identified as two subspecies of Lissemys punctata, namely, L. p. andersoni and L. p. punctata with their limited morphometric data and sequence allignment results (99%-100% with L. punctata) in both BLASTn and BOLD IDs. Further, the studied sequences revealed less nucleotide (1.5%) and amino acid (0.5%) variationas as well as minimal K2P divergence (0% - 1.5%) in both L. p. andersoni and L. p. punctata. Partial barcode sequences are not efficient to delineate the subspecies of L. punctata. This study validated that the use of partial COI marker could overcome the lack of mophometric data to achieve higher accuracy detection of any commercialized as well as forensic samples.

Keywords

Chelonians, Trionychids, Cytochrome Oxidase C Subunit I (COI), Subspecies, Forensic, Conservation.

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Shantanu Kundu ¹, Kulendra Chandra Das ¹, Sankar Kumar Ghosh ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Biotechnology, Assam University, Silchar-788011, Assam, IN

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Chelonians, Cytochrome Oxidase C Subunit I (COI), Amino Acid, Substitution.

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