DNA barcoding identification of Perciform fishes of the Arabian Gulf commercially harvested in Qatar

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

Species identification through DNA Barcoding method has frequently been used in taxonomic studies and has proved its effectiveness. The present study was conducted to identify five commercially harvested fish species from the Arabian Gulf in Qatar. Approximately, 650 bp fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene; five specimens of each species, was sequenced and amplified using universal LCO1490/HCO2198 primer set. A remarkable high level of similarities,  ranging from 99 to 100% , with the sequence of known specimens of the five species available in the NCBI database and the BOLD system, was observed. The identifications have been supported by the phylogeny tree where the samples of the same species formed an individual clade. Therefore, the DNA barcoding technique could be used as an effective tool in the identification of adult, larvae or even eggs of Lethrinus lentjan, Lethrinus nebulosus, Epenephelus coioides, Argyrops spinifer, and Acanthopagrus bifasciatus. The present study detected a low intraspecific divergence (average 0.46%, range 0.2 – 1.4%) with a relatively high genetic diversity in L. nebulosus. Consequently, the DNA barcoding sequences submitted to the database would help to identify larvae and processed products of the five Perciform fishes from Qatar waters and throughout the Gulf region.

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