DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2018.v06i01.007

Pages: 40-56

The main aim of this study was to barcode the wild zooplankton using partial sequence of mt-COI gene. Wild zooplankton sample was collected from the Ukkadam lake (Lat. 10.99° N and Long. 76.96° E), Coimbatore, India. The presence of 27 zooplankton species was identified, and each of them was mass cultured by fed with phytoplankton, Baker-Yeast, and cow-dung separately. Zooplankton was found to be fairly grown under phytoplankton followed by Baker-Yeast and cow-dung. The well grown zooplankton species, such as Brachionus calyciflorus, Brachionus caudatus, Brachionus rubens, Ceriodaphnia cornuta, Eucyclops speratus and Macrocyclops albidus were barcoded by mt-COI gene using universal primers, LCO1490 and HCO2198. The size of genomic DNA in each species was >10kb, and their amplified sequences was >600 bp, which showed 98-100% similarity when matched with NCBI data base. Comparison of amino acid residues among different zooplankton showed more number of variable amino acids, and less number of identical and similar amino acids, which indicated the fact that these species were discriminated. The nucleotide compositions showed >60% AT biases, which indicates the occurrence of less number of NUMTS gene sequences. The phylogenetic tree topology revealed that C. cornuta alone sat in one clade and the remaining species aligned in another clade with two clusters. Thus these species are genetically distinct but closely related with each other.