Assessment of Morphometric and Genetic Variation in Three Freshwater Fish Species of the Genus Garra (Osteichthyes: Cyprinidae)

Authors

  • Arulraj DHINAKARAN Annamalai University, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Parangipettai, 608502, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Nabeel Mannalamkunnath ALIKUNHI Annamalai University, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Parangipettai, 608502, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Selvaraj CHINNATHAMBI Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Department of Biotechnology, Sri Paramaayani Centre for Environmental Sciences, Awarkurichi, 627412, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Ramaiya SORNAM Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Department of Biotechnology, Sri Paramaayani Centre for Environmental Sciences, Awarkurichi, 627412, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Murugaiyan KALAISELVAM Annamalai University, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Parangipettai, 608502, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Ramodoss RAJASEKARAN Annamalai University, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Parangipettai, 608502, Tamil Nadu (IN)
  • Subramanian MANIVANNAN Sathak College of Arts and Science, Department of Biotechnology, Mohammed, Sholinganallur, Chennai-119, Tamil Nadu (IN)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15835/nsb315704

Keywords:

fresh water fishes; genetic variations; morphological changes; PCR; RAPD

Abstract

The present study evaluated the patterns of morphometric and genetic variation using RAPD-PCR techniques for the first time on three species of Garra, viz. G. mullya, G. kalakadensis and G. gotyla stenorhynchus, collected from various river basins of South-India. The results of morphological analysis revealed that G. mullya and G. kalakadensis hold many similar characters compared to the other congener, G. gotyla stenorhynchus. However, the G. gotyla stenorhynchus fish species exhibited distinct variation in the morphological characters such as snout length, pre-nasal length, inter-nasal width, gap width, lower jaw to isthmus, head depth at pupil, dorsal fin length and disc width from the other two species of Garra. However, certain morphometric characters overlapped. Hence the RAPD finger printing was used to assess the levels of genetic variation in Garra spp. using RAPD-PCR technique. A total of 72 reliable fragments were detected using 10 Operon primers, ranging from 2600 molecular weight to 3100. The shared RAPD fragments found in both G. mullya and G. kalakadensis with fixed frequencies were observed with all the investigated primers, implying their genetically closer relationship. However, the similarity index observed for G. gotyla stenorhynchus was less with the other two species specifying a genetically distant link. The present investigation thus contribute to the knowledge on morphological and genetic variation in these three Garra species.

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Published

2011-03-07

How to Cite

DHINAKARAN, A., ALIKUNHI, N. M., CHINNATHAMBI, S., SORNAM, R., KALAISELVAM, M., RAJASEKARAN, R., & MANIVANNAN, S. (2011). Assessment of Morphometric and Genetic Variation in Three Freshwater Fish Species of the Genus Garra (Osteichthyes: Cyprinidae). Notulae Scientia Biologicae, 3(1), 12–16. https://doi.org/10.15835/nsb315704

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Section

Research articles
CITATION
DOI: 10.15835/nsb315704