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The identity and distribution of striped bagrid catfish, Mystus tengara (Hamilton 1822) revealed through integrative taxonomy

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Abstract

Background

The taxonomic status and geographical distribution of M. tengara are vague. No genetic diversity and phylogenetic study have been done till now to resolve its identity and distribution. In the present study, an integrated taxonomic approach has been applied to clarify the taxonomic status, identity, and distribution of bagrid catfish, Mystus tengara.

Methods and results

Comparative morphometric evaluation of M. tengara identified in the present study from distant geographical locations revealed variations of the traits in response to body length and environment, without significant genetic distance. The observed morphometric traits of M. tengara were found to be overlapping with available morphometric traits of M. tengara, M. carcio and M. vittatus. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (COI) gene also could not resolve their identity, and five paraphyletic clades comprising of M. tengara, M. vittatus, and M. carcio from India, Nepal, and Bangladesh were observed. Morphological and genetic evidence along with comparative evaluation of M. tengara, from its type locality, we consider M. tengara identified in the present study to be true, with its distribution extending from North East India to West Bengal, North India, Central India, Northern peninsular India, and Bangladesh.

Conclusion

The observation of paraphyletic subclades and evaluation of genetic distance between subclades reveals the presence of four cryptic species. Further confirmation on the identity of M. vittatus and M. carcio, by an integrated taxonomic approach based on fresh specimens collected from the type locality, is required.

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Data availability

The sequence data generated in this study are deposited in NCBI GenBank. Details have been provided in the Material and Methods Sect. 2.3.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. Gopal Krishna, Director, ICAR—Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai for encouragement and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for financial support in the form of a fellowship to Sangeetha M. Nair. The authors also express their Sincere thanks to Madhavi Umesh Bhise, Research Fellow, ICAR—CIFE for the technical help during barcoding studies.

Funding

ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) provided financial assistance for the work.

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Author notes

  1. Sangeetha M. Nair

    Present address: ICAR- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR- Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Versova, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400061, India

    Sangeetha M. Nair, Annam Pavan Kumar & A. K. Jaiswar

  2. ICAR- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore, India

    Kavita Kumari

  3. Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India

    Rajeev Raghavan

Authors
  1. Sangeetha M. Nair
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  3. Annam Pavan Kumar
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  4. Rajeev Raghavan
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  5. A. K. Jaiswar
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Contributions

SMN: Conceptualisation, investigation, resources, laboratory analysis, writing original draft, writing-reviewing and editing. KK: Data curation, software analysis, writing original draft, writing-reviewing and editing. APK: Software analysis, writing-reviewing, and editing. RR: Formal analysis, writing-reviewing, and editing. AKJ: Supervision and overall guidance.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. K. Jaiswar.

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The authors report no conflict of interest in authorship and publication.

Ethical approval

All the fish species caught for the research work are belonging to the food fish category and are not protected under The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Last amended in 2017), Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India.

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Nair, S.M., Kumari, K., Kumar, A.P. et al. The identity and distribution of striped bagrid catfish, Mystus tengara (Hamilton 1822) revealed through integrative taxonomy. Mol Biol Rep 49, 351–361 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06880-2

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