Evolutionary relationship among two catfish species by Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) DNA markers

Abstract

The three dams in Niger State, Nigeria, that were investigated for evolutionary relationship among two catfish species ( Clarias gariepinus and Heterobrachus bidosalis ) are Agaie/Lapai dam, Shiroro dam and Tagwai dam. Ten samples of each species were collected from the study dams and they were subjected to single nucleotide polymorphic genotyping. Four SNPs primers, which consist of growth hormone and early growth response gene were utilized to amplified the DNA. Bands were generated from all the samples from the study dams in all the primers used for the amplification, which gives strong indications that, all the samples been genotyped are rich in both growth hormone and early growth response gene. Further-more, two samples from each species from the study dams were sequenced, then subjected to Bio-edit software to draw the evolutionary relationship tree. The samples were grouped into two main branches by the dendrogram in Bio edit software that draws the evolutionary relationship tree, the first branch are made up of all the C. gariepinus samples and the second branch comprises of all the H. bidosalis samples from the three dams, the two main groups show by the dendrogram reveals that both species are evolutionarily not very close to each other and this also give the reassurance of the two species belonging to different species and genera.