DNA barcoding of horn snail Telescopium telescopium (Linnaeus C, 1758) using mt-COI gene sequences

In this study, we applied DNA barcoding tool for the molecular identification of horn snails Telescopium telescopium (Linnaeus, 1758) using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (mt-COI) gene and investigated their evolutionary relationships along with bio-geographical variations. Results of this study indicate the strong probability of T. telescopium species taxonomic confirmation using mt-COI sequences. The phylogeny analysis suggests that Telescopium sp. was monophyletic with disseminated nodes and it revealed that the evolution of group II originated from group I. Furthermore, the substantial genetic distance was noticed among the mt-COI sequences (0.005 to 0.184) of the sample groups. The large divergence observed between the populations along the southwest coast of India, and Australia indicates limited gene flow among the two continents. Our study suggests that the genera of Telescopium sp. are globally ubiquitous and showed inter-region differentiation at the genetic level. We conclude that mt-COI gene can be used to identify gastropod T. telescopium species in addition to existing diagnostic tools, even at the regional level.