Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome b gene from Garra tibanica an endogenous species from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Garra tibanica is ray-finned freshwater fish belonging to the cyprinid. Previous studies have reported that this specie is a native fish species found in Saudi Arabia. However, this specie was never been assessed using molecular markers to find out its phylogenetic relationship with other species in the area. This study investigates the genetic diversity between of the Garra tibanica collected from Medina province, Saudi Arabia based on phylogenetic analysis using the cytochrome b gene. The phylogenetic tree constructed from the cytochrome b sequence indicates that Garra tibanica is more closely related to Garra sahilia and Garra sharq than Garra rufa, Garra gymnothorax, which may reflect the allopatric speciation of Garra according to their existence in nearby geographic regions. To our knowledge, this report is the first to describe the species of Garra in Saudi Arabia based on phylogenetic analysis using the cytochrome b gene.