DNA barcodes of southeast asian spiders of wheat agro-ecosystem

Abstract

Knowledge about the systematic research is problematic, because distinguishing morphological features are difficult to use in identification of organisms. This problem can be inferred based on DNA sequences of mitochondrial Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit 1 (CO1). In this study, we distinguished five species of spiders using their CO1 gene sequences and compared them with 40 earlier published sequences, retrieved from GenBank on the bases of maximum similarity index. The sequences of gene encoding CO1 of all five spider species were deposited in GenBank. Out of five spiders in this study, three species i.e. Leucauge decorata, Oxyopes javanus and Pardosa timidula were first ever spiders of whom any gene sequences were deposited in nucleotide database. A CO1 profile of all spider species was correctly assigned and 100% of subsequently analyzed specimens were identified up to their species levels. Such outcomes establish the potential of CO1 as a rapid identification tool and for phylogenetic relationships of spiders. Despite being sympatric species, the origin and diversification of Araneid fauna in wheat fields are remarkably distinguished which may help to understand the biology, biogeography and the longstanding controversies of their systematic studies.