Integrating morphometric and molecular approaches for snakeheads' phylogeny

Morphometric and molecular phylogenetic study provides interesting perspective for relationship of the snakeheads species. In this study, morphometric method was done by measuring eighteen variables on side view and eleven variables on dorsal view of 53 individuals from four species of snakeheads which were Channa striata, C. micropeltes, C. marulioides and C. lucius. Phylogenetics study was carried out on partial mtDNA 16S gene of six Channa species which were C. striata, C. micropeltes, C. marulioides, C. lucius, C. melasoma and C. gachua. For the morphometric study, the data were analysed with ANOVA, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). All four species were grouped into their respective groups. The variables side and dorsal view showed variability for size among individuals and the species can be grouped into different group based on similarities in the head and caudal peduncle regions. For phylogenetic study, the phylogenetic tree was constructed based on partial mtDNA 16S show a clear grouping among the six species. This study demonstrated that the morphometric and phylogenetic studies were valuable in identification of the species and could be used in determining the relationship of fish species.