African freshwater eel species (Anguilla spp.) identification through DNA barcoding
Céline Hanzen
A , Martyn C. Lucas B , Gordon O’Brien A C , Colleen T. Downs A and Sandi Willows-Munro A D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu–Natal, P/Bag X01, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa.
B University of Durham, Department of Biosciences, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
C University Mpumalanga, School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Private Bag X11283, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa.
D Corresponding author. Email: willows-munro@ukzn.ac.za
Marine and Freshwater Research 71(11) 1543-1548 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF19390
Submitted: 11 December 2019 Accepted: 17 February 2020 Published: 23 March 2020
Abstract
Freshwater eels (Anguilla spp.) have a long and complex catadromous life cycle. This unique feature, coupled with difficulty in separating species based on morphology, makes them complex targets for conservation. In this study we evaluated the utility of DNA barcoding using cytochrome oxidase I (COI) to delimit the four species of African eels found in the western Indian Ocean region. We collected 76 individual fin clips from the four eel species (A. mossambica, n = 51; A. marmorata, n = 17; A. bengalensis, n = 6; A. bicolor, n = 2) in the rivers of KwaZulu–Natal, South Africa, in 2016–18. Phylogenetic analysis of the COI sequences recovered all four species as monophyletic. Barcoding gap analyses were performed and there was no found overlap in inter- and intraspecific genetic distances. Consequently, the use of COI barcoding as an identification tool was found to be reliable for identifying African eels to the species level, which suggests that this marker should be included in future environmental DNA or metabarcoding studies.
Additional keywords: barcode gap analysis, cytochrome oxidase I, western Indian Ocean region.
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