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Abstract
In this study, we applied a partial sequence of mitochondrial COI gene as DNA barcode to assess the viability of DNA barcoding for distinguishing Patellogastropoda. One-hundred thirty-five COI gene sequences were obtained from 13 species belonging to Nacellidae (Cellana) and Lottiidae (Lottia, Patelloida and Nipponacmea) along the coast of China. The alignment result of these sequences indicated the existence of insertions in mitochondrial COI gene of Patellogastropoda. The Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) distances within species and genera were 0.00–1.01% (average 0.07%) and 18.09–37.80% (average 24.07%), respectively, an obvious barcoding gap existed. All species in our study were clearly discriminated in all trees (neighbor-joining (NJ), Bayesian, and maximum likelihood (ML) tree) with a highly supported clade node. The character-based barcode method successfully identified 100% of the Patellogastropod species included, and performed well in discriminating Patellogastropod genera. The results of this study affirm that DNA barcoding based on the COI gene can identify species belonging to Patellogastropoda rapidly and accurately.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Akihiko Matsukuma for helping us in identifying the specimens.
Declaration of interest
The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. This study was supported by research grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (41276138 and 31372524), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.