Title: Historic demography and phylogenetic relationship of Euthynnus species based on COI sequence analyses

Authors: Girish Kumar; Swaraj Priyaranjan Kunal

Addresses: Biological Oceanography Division (BOD), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Dona Paula, Goa 403004, India ' Biological Oceanography Division (BOD), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Dona Paula, Goa 403004, India

Abstract: Euthynnus species are epipelagic migratory tuna species, with global distribution. They occur in the open waters but usually remain close to the shoreline. In present study, historic demography and phylogenetic relationship of Euthynnus species were examined using sequence data from portions of the mitochondrial COI gene. A total of 35 sequences were retrieved from NCBI. Mismatch distribution analyses suggested a late Pleistocene population expansion of E. affinis and E. alletteratus. Neutrality test for E. alletteratus fails to reject the null hypothesis of neutral evolution while COI sequences of E. affinis are found to be at genetic equilibrium. Phylogenetic analysis suggest that E. alletteratus is the most ancestral species while E. affinis is more closely related to E. lineatus than E. alletteratus.

Keywords: Euthynnus; mitochondrial COI gene; mtDNA; historic demography; population expansion; phylogenetic relationships; tuna; bioinformatics; gene sequences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBRA.2013.056088

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications, 2013 Vol.9 No.5, pp.547 - 555

Received: 19 Jan 2012
Accepted: 29 Feb 2012
Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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