Genetic Diversity and Cryptic Species Identification of Genus Triplophysa from River Swat in Malakand Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Fish are cold blooded vertebrates’ identification on the bases of morphology is not more precise and required high taxonomic expertise therefore molecular identification is used as an alternative and more accurate technique for the identification of fishes. In the current investigation 39 fish specimens were collected from May 2021 to February 2022. With this aim, the recent study was conducted in the freshwaters of River Swat in Malakand Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan to explore the genetic diversity of genus Triplophysa. DNA was extracted and amplified using gene specific primers. The PCR products carefully were sequenced and Phylogenic analysis was performed using neighbor-joining, maximum likelihood through MEGA software. Nucleotide composition and genetic pairwise distance recommend that the calculated species of the subfamily Nemacheilinae are organically dissimilar. The River Swat is the study area and it is inhabited by three Triplophysa species, Triplophysa naziri, Triplophysa microps, and Triplophysa choprai. The evolutionary tree shows that these species are clearly separated. The mean of total length calculated in the three species of the genus Triplophysa such as 8.175 ± 0.198 cm for Triplophysa naziri, 10.14 ± 0.35 cm for Triplophysa microps, 11.052 ± 0.23 cm for Triplophysa choprai. This study provides a model for the improvement of identification in cryptic diversity and field of ichthyofauna.