Molecular Cataloging Of Pakistani Small Wild Ruminant Species Of Family Cervidae And Bovidae Through DNA Barcoding

Abstract

In this study 7 small wild ruminant species (35 sequences) of family bovidae and cervidae along with 15 sequences (retrieved from GenBank) were phylogenetically investigated and evolutionary explored through DNA barcoding using 393 base pair region of Cytochrome b gene as a genetic marker. Sequences were analyzed using Bioedit, NCBI, Clustal Omega and MEGA software. Between groups evolutionary divergence was recorded as 0.070-3.542, while within group average evolutionary divergence was 0.000-0.113 and average evolutionary divergence over all sequence pairs was 0.195. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was constructed. Axis porcinus formed monophyletic group with Axis kuhlii. Axis axis cladded with Dama dama. Cervus elaphus evolved in same clade with species of same genus. Muntiacus muntjak descended with Muntiacus feae. Oryx leocoryx exhibited close evolutionary relationship to Addax nasomaculatus. Antilope cervicapra displayed sister group evolutionary relationship to Gazella bennettii and Gazella bennettii formed monophyletic group with Gazella leptoceros. This region of Cyt b gene successfully identified these at species and genera level. It was concluded that owing to great resemblances in morphological characters of small wild ruminants of the family bovidae and cervidae, ought to be studied on the basis of complete mitochondrial genome and possibly its comparison to nuclear genome studies.