Genetic relatedness among fish species of Genus Channa using mitochondrial DNA genes

The family Channidae is represented by 26 species, out of which 23 species are found in Asia. However, the taxonomy and phylogeny of the Channid fishes found in India are poorly understood. In the present study, eight species of Channa (Channa striata, Channa punctatus, Channa marulius, Channa gachua, Channa stewartii, Channa aurantimaculata, Channa barca and Channa bleheri) were investigated using partial sequences of 16S rRNA and Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) of mitochondrial genes to differentiate among the eight species and study their relationships. The sequence analysis of the genes revealed two distinct groups, which are genetically distant from each other and exhibit identical phylogenetic resolution. The partial sequences of both the genes provided sufficient phylogenetic information to distinguish all the eight species of Channa.