Using dna barcodes based on mitochondrial coi and 16s rrna genes to identify anguilla eels in thua thien hue province, vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, Anguilla eels have been documented before, but their species composition and biological characteristics are still relatively unknown. Research on the molecular phylogeny of Anguilla has been limited, and identification of the species of eels was usually based on morphological characteristics. This is the first time both cytochrome c oxydase subunit I (COI) and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes were used to identify Anguilla eels in water bodies, where the eels can migrate downstream and upstream during different stages of the life cycle, in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. Based on DNA sequence analysis of six specimens, two Anguilla species (including subspecies) were confirmed as A. marmorata and A. bicolor pacifica, which had not been identified based on morphological characteristics in previous analyses. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Anguilla genus in Thua Thien Hue province belongs to the Indo-Pacific lineage and helped build phylogenetic trees generated from mtDNA data from GenBank for these eels.