Barcoding of Indian marine fishes: For identification and conservation

Abstract

India has a rich natural heritage and nurtures a unique bio-diversity, placing it among the 12 most biodiverse countries. Globally the number of valid fish species recorded so far is more than 31000, with the addition, at an average, of 100-150/year. Among these 2,508 are indigenous to Indian subcontinent (877 freshwater, 113 brackish water and 1,518 marine species). DNA barcoding is a molecular method for species identification and classification of biological organisms based on the analysis of short, standardized gene sequences. In most animals, the fragment of mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) has been used as the target sequence. This novel system is designed to provide rapid, accurate, and automatable species identifications by using short, standardized gene regions as internal species tags. Of this rich natural biodiversity, comprising over 1518 native marine species, at present barcodes of about 500 marine fish species are available, which is approximately 33 % of total Indian marine fish diversity. Whereas major portion of registered marine fishes remain untouched. Hence more emphasis should be given to DNA barcoding, with mandate of barcoding all the species to establish global comprehensive reference libraries. The traditional taxonomists will play a vital role in completing such a global database; hence there is a pressing need to make a integration of DNA barcoding with traditional taxonomy. In a nutshell, it can be said that DNA barcoding can be taken up as pragmatic approach for resolving unambiguous identification of the fish fauna which can play a crucial role in biodiversity assessment and conservation of marine ecosystem of country.