An Analysis of Genetic Diversity Among Indian Coldwater Fishes (Pisces: Cyprinidae) Using RAPD Markers

Abstract

The present investigation aims to study the genetic relatedness among the coldwater fish species and construction of phylogenetic relationships among them. Eleven random primers were employed to screen for RAPD markers in the most commonly available coldwater fish species of Uttarkhand region, viz., Tor putitora, Schizothorax richadrsonii, Raiamas bola and Garra species. The sizes of the amplified products were from 200 to 5,000 bp in all the fish species with all the primers employed. Total 188 bands were scored with the 11 primers employed, with the average numbers of bands scored being 3.54 ± 0.72, 5.18 ± 0.69, 3.64 ± 0.58 and 4.73 ± 0.78 in Tor putitora, S. richadrsonii, R. bola and Garra species respectively. The maximum numbers of scorable bands were obtained with primer OPA-03 primer in Tor putitora (08 ± 0.71), Schizothorax richadrsonii (08 ± 0.71), Raiamas bola (07 ± 0.71) and Garra species (05 ± 0.71), and minimum numbers (1 to 3) of amplified fragments were observed with primer OPA 05. Higher proportion of polymorphic bands were produced by OPY02 (7.5%) and NUSZG4 (5.75%) primers among these fish species. The highest genetic distances were observed between T. putitora and R. bola (0.60), followed by T. putitora with Garra species (0.52), and the least genetic distance was observed between the S. richardsonii and Garra species (0.36), followed by T. putitora and S. richardsonii (0.43). The phylogenic tree was constructed using TDRAW V1.4 software package, which revealed the T. putitora with S. richardsonii and Garra species with R. bola forming a separate monophyly