Genetic Structuring in Riverine Population of Channa striata (Bloch, 1793) from India using Cytochrome Oxidase I Gene

The freshwater snakehead murrel fish, Channa striata , is a commercially important and potential candidate species for aquaculture. Sequences of 655 bp long cytochrome oxidase I fragments from 115 individuals, belonging to nine geographically isolated from riverine ecosystems of India, was used for genetic diversity studies. The result indicated 33 polymorphic sites with 31 parsimonious-info and 8 singletons, which revealed the presence of 16 haplotypes with haplotype diversity (H) range from 0.4190 to 0.7424. H2 was found as ancestral haplotype with frequency of 18 individuals. C. striata populations in river Chaliyar showed distinct mitochondrial lineage with maximum 23 points mutations between mv1 to H12 and H3 to H13. The Analysis of Molecular Variance and Fst scores represented the genetic dispersal of C. striata in Indian water. Generally, moderate to high Fst scores were observed in geographically isolated C. striata populations. The finding of analysis suggests a single panmictic population of C. striata across the nine rivers of India.