Revisit of the taxonomic status of Bos genus with special refference to north eastern hilly region of India

Abstract

North-eastern India has diverse Bos genus endemic animals which include Siri (Bos indicus), Yak (Bos grunniens) and Mithun (Bos frontalis). But very little is known about their origin and taxonomic position. Hence, a taxonomic revisit of the genesis needed to confirm their position in the family Bovidae. So, the present study focuses on molecular cataloguing through DNA barcoding and phylogenetic relationships. The generated CO1 sequences of Bos indicus, Bos grunniens, and Bos frontalis were analyzed through similarity search, Species delineation approach like K2P Distance, Neighbour-Joining tree and ML approaches to identify their taxonomic position with respect to global published data. The NJ tree revealed cohesive clustering of Bos indicus with the pre-existing sequences of zebu and taurine but distinct from other congeners. The collected specimen of Bos frontalis clustered distinctly from other congeners and failed to cluster with Bos gaurus, which nullifies the previous report of Bos frontalis as a domesticated form of Bos gaurus. Similarly, Bison bison clustered very closely with Bos grunniens as their nearest neighbour. This observation was confirmed by ML phylogeny. Our findings confirmed the Siri's species status as Bos indicus. Similarly, Bos frontalis is a different species within the genus Bos but not the domesticated form of Bos gaurus. The close clustering of Bos grunniens and Bison bison supported the previous reports, which suggest that the genus Bison should be regarded as a synonym of the genus Bos. Thus, the present study strongly recommends the revisiting of bovine taxonomy.