Molecular Identification and Barcoding of Some Fishes Collected from Coastal Regions of West Bengal, India for Fish Diversity Conservation

• Barsha Sarkar ^[1] ; Jatindra Nath Bhakta ^[1] ; Bana Bihari Jana ^[2] ; Uttam Kumar Sarkar ^[3] ; Mahender Singh ^[3]
  1. [1] Laboratory of Environmental and Bioresource Technology, Department of Ecological Studies & International Centre for Ecological Engineering, University of Kalyani, Nadia, Kalyani, India
  2. [2] International Centre for Ecological Engineering, University of Kalyani, Nadia, Kalyani, India
  3. [3] ICAR- National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (ICARNBFGR), Dilkusha Marg, Lucknow, India

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• Localización: Thalassas: An international journal of marine sciences, ISSN 0212-5919, Vol. 41, Nº. 1, 2025
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The loss of fish biodiversity in the coastal ecosystem of West Bengal, India, due to adverse environmental impacts both natural and anthropogenic, poses significant threats to the stability of the coastal ecosystem and economy. Therefore, accurate fish species identification and documentation is the first step toward fish biodiversity conservation. The challenges of relying solely on morphological identification and the lack of DNA barcoding-based molecular identification of fish are the impetus for the present study. The present study aims to address these challenges by identifying and barcoding fish species collected from coastal areas near the Sundarbans mangrove using morpho-molecular characterization and genetic analysis with partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). Out of 110 collected fish samples, 20 representative species were identified and classified into 19 species, 17 genera, 12 families and 6 orders. The DNA sequences of these species showed 98 to 100% similarity match with the GenBank database. Notably, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List indicates that Ompok pabda is considered near threatened, while other species are listed as least concern. In conclusion, the selected 19 fish samples belonged to distinct species with unique barcodes, which will serve as a strong reference for a fish diversity database in the studied coastal ecosystem. Morpho-molecular identification emerges as a reliable approach for understanding fish biodiversity and supporting sustainable management of coastal fish bioresources.