DNA Barcoding and Electronic Microarrays for Common Fish Species in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

Abstract:

To develop a method for the rapid identification and classification of fishes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, 168 DNA sequences of the cytochrome oxidase subunit Ⅰ (COⅠ) gene collected from GenBank. 64 common freshwater fish species in 7 orders, 11 families, and 50 genera were analyzed to test the efficacy of species identification using a DNA barcode microarray. The results showed that the intraspecific genetic distances ranged from 0 to 0.0776 (average, 0.0079). The interspecific distances ranged from 0.003 to 0.0190 (average, 0.084). The interspecific genetic distance was larger than the intraspecific distance, and all 168 sequences formed species units in a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree, indicating that the DNA barcodes could be used to identify these 64 species. Based on the DNA microarray technology, 112 probes were selected from 43 species with high specificity, accounting for 67.2% of the total species. Thus, the DNA barcode microarray provided technical support and a new way to identify fish species in the middle reaches of Yangtze River basin.