First report of Plectropomus pessuliferus from Indian Peninsula with species delimitation analysis based on COI gene

Abstract

The molecular phylogeny and species delimitation analysis based on Cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) gene of Plectropomus pessuliferus, shows proximity with nine gene sequences of the same species retrieved from the NCBI and BOLD database. However, some gene sequences of P. pessuliferus retrieved show a close affinity with some sequences of two closely related species, viz. P. leopardus and P. maculatus, and their hybrids. The overlapping species delimitation results for P. pessuliferus and P. leopardus, along with fewer nucleotide differences and their appearance in the same clade in the Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree, support the earlier hypothesis of probable natural hybridisation and ongoing introgression between species of the genus Plectropomus in the marine environment. Additionally, many similarities in the morphological assessment further corroborate this claim. The finding of coral reef trout P. pessuliferus constitutes its first record from the potential fishing zones of the Indian peninsula.