Comparative Phylogenetic Study of Four Coldwater Fishes (Family Cyprinidae) Based on Targeted 16S RNA Mitochondrial Gene

Abstract

S. richardsonii, T. putitora, B. Bendelisis and G. Gotyla are commercially important coldwater fish, widely used as a food fish, game fish and ornamentally fish in the Uttarakhand region of India. The present study examined the phylogenetic relationship within and between four coldwater fish species from Kumaun and Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. The mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA were used to elucidate phylogeny of the family Cyprinids. Analysis of 34 sequences of 16S rRNA gene (550 bp) revealed 12 haplotypes for both regions. The 16S rRNA dataset contained 93 and 94 variable site found for Garhwal and Kumaun region respectively. Rate of transition were higher than transversion for both region. The nucleotide diversity was lowest between the T. putitora and S. richardsonii and highest between the B. bendelisis and G. gotyla for both regions. The phylogenetic tree, constructed unweighted pair group average (UPMGA) methods revealed similar results suggesting that T. putitora and S. richardsonii have a close relationship to each other while maximum divergence was observed in B. bendelisis, which was also confirmed by the genetic distance data. The understanding of genetic variations of coldwater fishes will play a key role in conservation and management of this endangered fish species.