Author(s): G. Rajkumar, P. Saravana Bhavan, R. Udayasuriyan, C. Vadivalagan

Abstract: DNA barcoding is a vital tool for assessing non described and cryptic morphological species. Literature revealed that a number of marine shrimp species have morphologically been described. However, it has lots of misleading due to cryptic characters, such as dimorphism, larval and adult variation etc. In the present study, fourteen marine shrimp species (Penaeus semisulcatus, Penaeus monodon, Metapenaeus affinis, Metapenaeus lysianasa, Metapenaeus dobsoni, Metapenaeus brevicornis, Metapenaeopsis stridulans, Fenneropenaeus indicus, Fenneropenaeus merguiensis, Parapenaeopsis stylifera, Parapenaeopsis maxillipedo, Marsupenaeus japonicas, Solenocera crassicornis and Alpheus paludicola) were collected from Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and they were identified morphologically. Among these, six species (P. semisulcatus, M. dobsoni, M. brevicornis, F. indicus, P. stylifera and S.rncrassicornis) were taken for molecular identification by adopting DNA barcoding of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. 650 bp sequences were obtained when universal primers (LCO1490 and HCO2198) were used. Their similarity was checked with BLAST-NCBI, and each and every species showed > 80% identity. Maximum intra specific divergence was calculated as 0.8% in F. indicus of India, Thailand and China. Inter specific divergence was found to be maximum, 3.95% between S. crassicornis and S. koelbeli of India and China. Minimum divergence (0.00%) was observed between two Indian haplotypes, M. dobsoni and M. brevicornis, which overlaps each other. Further studies at population levels of these two species are required to rule out this ambiguity. On the whole, the phylogenetic tree revealed the polyphyletic clade.

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