PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF ENDEMIC FISH SPECIES OF OHRID LAKE

Abstract

Computer-assisted analysis in biogeography is becoming one of the major research topics in the physical geography. Interestingly, the bioinformatics software tools provide good models for better understanding of a biological process. We have utilized them in finding the relationship between Ohrid lake endemic species of Salmo Letnica and other eight fishes from the Salmonidae family that constitute three subfamilies. The study of phylogenetics with considerable research interest in the phylogenetic relationships among the endemic fish species of Ohrid Lake is the main focus of this research article. Salmonidae family is found to be a big family constituting three subfamilies including Salmoninae family. The main research of the present work is aimed at the fishes from the Salmoninae family with more focus on the Salmo genus. Eight types of fishes from the mentioned genus were used in the process of creation of two different phylogenetic trees namely Neighbor-Joining and Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) phylogenetic tree. In order to create the trees, the accessions codes for the mitochondrial DNA sequences adopted from the National Center for Biotechnology Information website were imported into MATLAB for further analysis. The resulting trees were investigated further to understand clearly the correlation of Salmo Letnica with the other eight fishes.