Genetic comparison of two color morphs of northern snakehead (Channa argus) and Chnannidae family

Abstract

Relationships of two species of Channa argus (northern snakeheads) named “Bicolor type” and “White type”, as well as other six Channa species were investigated based on their partial sequence of mitochondrial DNA 16S rRNA genes in the present study. For the Channa family, the average genetic distance was 0.0863 with the inter-species genetic distance ranged from 0.0173 to 0.1384, and the average intra-species genetic distance in the genus channa was estimated as 0.00273 (range: 0.0019 to 0.0038). For the two C. argus species, the mean pair-wise genetic distance between “Bicolor type” and “White type” northern snakehead was estimated as 0.00218, which was within the intra-species genetic distance interval for Channa species, indicating that they belonged to the same species at molecular level. Moreover, these snakeheads can be divided into two distinct groups via 16S rRNA, which might be more accurate for Channa classification than traditional method based on the absence or presence of the pelvic fins of the fish.

Keywords:

• 16S rRNA
• genetic comparison
• northern snakehead

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Drs. M. J. Xu for his assistance in proof-reading the article.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding information

This work were supported by the China Spark Program (grant no. 2008GA780002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30771652 and 30972258), the Integration of Industry, Education and Research of Guangdong Province (grant no. 2011B090400270) and the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Animal Science (grant no. 4300-214051).