MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE INDIAN MAJOR CARP CATLA CATLARose Gregoria P.J. and Moses Inbaraj R.Abstract DNA barcoding is one means of establishing a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective system for the identification of species. It involves the use of short, standard gene targets to create sequence profiles of known species against sequences of unknowns that can be matched and subsequently identified. The cytochrome oxidase subunit-1 gene fragments were then sequenced from the samples in accordance with the standard DNA barcoding protocols. Catla catla is a member of the genus Catla, of the carp family Cyprinidae and order Cypriniformes. This work aims at barcoding the freshwater species C. catla, known as the Indian major carp and its phylogenetic assessment. Significance of this study is to check the mutation rate in the specimen from the southern part of India by comparing many barcode results from the northern part. This is the first study of C. catla barcoding from the southern part reported to NCBI. As the global market for fisheries and aquaculture products expands, mislabeling of these products has become a growing concern in the food safety arena. Molecular species identification techniques hold the potential for rapid, accurate assessment of proper labeling. |