Deep genetic divergence in Randall’s threadfin bream Nemipterus randalli Russell, 1986 population from northern Bay of Bengal inferred by mtDNA sequences

ABSTRACT

Nemipterus randalli is one of the most commercially important fish species along the Indian coast. Specimens were sampled from Visakhapatnam, northern Bay of Bengal, along the east coast of India. We analysed the data generated in the present study with previously available sequences from the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Intraspecific variation in COI sequences between the Visakhapatnam and other locales varied from 0.7–1.1%. Also, analysis of D-loop sequences revealed deep genetic divergence with high pairwise Φ_ST values (0.77–0.89). Results identified a distinct population of N. randalli from Visakhapatnam. To conserve genetic integrity, special attention and detailed studies are needed on the Visakhapatnam population of N. randalli in the northern Bay of Bengal.

KEYWORDS:

• Nemipteridae
• population structure
• fishery management
• mitochondrial DNA

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to The Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, for encouragement and financial support in the form of fellowship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data associated with this study are submitted to NCBI GenBank.