DNA Barcoding of some Species of Genus Synodontis (Family Mochokidae) from the River Nile in Egypt

Abstract

The current work aimed to study the phylogenetic lineages of some species of the genus Synodontis belonging to the family Mochokidae using the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. The nucleotide sequences of COI were inserted into the GenBank with accession numbers (OP143814.1-OP143816.1). The length of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I sequence stretched from 617 bp to 623 bp. The overall genetic distance was 0.09. The COI gene displayed A+T ratio bigger than the C+G ratio. The average nucleotide frequencies of adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G) were 27.30, 25.57, 29.93 and 17.20%, respectively. Among understudied Synodontis fish, the P-distances expanded from 0.0127 to 0.0161%. The highest value (0.0161) was found between Synodontis batensoda and Synodontis schall. While the lowest P-distance (0.0127) was found between Synodontis batensoda and Synodontis clarias. Furthermore, more investigations on the phylogenetics of the family Mochokidae are recommended.