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First Record of African Angel Shark, Squatina africana (Chondricthyes: Squatinidae) in Indian Waters, Confirmed by DNA Barcoding

Abstract

A single specimen of African angel shark, Squatina africana (Regan, 1908) was caught off Lakshadweep (11°5′47″ N; 72°2′21″ E), India in September 2016. The present study is a new report of the above species from Indian waters. In addition to classical methodologies, DNA barcoding was also adopted for species identification. The 650 bp-long region of mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I was sequenced to obtain the DNA barcode for the species under study. The sequence divergence value within species and between species was calculated using MEGA V.7.0, where Kimura 2 parameter (k2p) model was chosen as a distance model. The average k2p distance separating individuals within species was 1.76% and inter specific divergence was 8–10%. A neighbour joining network was constructed to provide a graphical representation of divergence between the species. Using the maximum identity with Gen Bank database, K2P divergence distance, NJ-network and traditional morphological approach, we could identify the given specimen as a mature male African angel shark.

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Correspondence to P. U. Zacharia.

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Ambily, M.N., Zacharia, P.U., Najmudeen, T.M. et al. First Record of African Angel Shark, Squatina africana (Chondricthyes: Squatinidae) in Indian Waters, Confirmed by DNA Barcoding. J. Ichthyol. 58, 312–317 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945218030013

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945218030013

Keywords

  • first record
  • Squatinidae
  • cytochrome c oxidase
  • Squatina africana
  • India