DNA barcoding of a colonial ascidian, Lissoclinum fragile (Van Name, 1902)

Abstract

Ascidians (tunicates) are marine benthic organisms possessing various pharmacological activities, including anti-oxidant, anti-tumour, antimicrobial, etc. They also play a key role as model organisms to study various neurobehavioral disorders. Ascidian diversity is reportedly less in India due to lack of taxonomists as well as the limitations in morphology based taxonomy. Molecular taxonomy, comprising the sequencing of cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene (barcode region) otherwise known as DNA barcoding reduces these bottlenecks. Since several species of the family Didemnidae closely resemble in morphology, the present study was aimed to develop DNA barcodes of a colonial ascidian, Lissoclinum fragile belonging to the family Didemnidae. CO1 gene of L. fragile from Thoothukudi, Mandapam, and Vizhinjam waters were sequenced and submitted in GenBank, NCBI through Barcode submission tool. BLAST results showed maximum identity (97–100%) for L. fragile collected from different stations. The pairwise genetic distances within species and genera were calculated using Kimura two parameter (K2P) and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using Neighbour-Joining Tree.

Keywords:

• Ascidians
• CO1 gene
• DNA barcoding
• Lissoclinum fragile
• molecular taxonomy

Acknowledgements

The authors thank their College Secretary and Principal for their motivation.

Disclosure statement

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

Funding

Our deep sense of gratitude to Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for the financial support [BT/PR6801/AAQ/3/609/2012].