Wildlife DNA Forensic in Curbing Illegal Wildlife Trade: Specie Identification from Seizures

Species identification in wildlife forensics is the one of the major concern to enforce law and curbing illegal wildlife trade. Among all the available analytical teqniques DNA based species identification is the most robust and acceptable evidence in the court of law. We analysed cytochrome b and 12S rRNA mtDNA fragments to identify species from three different seizures. DNA based analysis of Cyt b and 12S rRNA has identified three seizures as Hog deer, Chital and Swamp deer

Forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) for the first time authentication of Indian Varanus species: implication in wildlife forensics and conservation

<p>Monitor lizards are Varanus species widely distributed, endangered reptile in the IUCN red data list. In India, based on the morphological and ecological characteristic, it is divided into four species <i>viz.</i> Bengal monitor lizard, Yellow monitor lizard, Desert monitor lizard and Water monitor lizard. These four species listed as Schedule I species in Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. This paper first attempt to present Forensically Informative Nucleotide Sequencing (FINS) for the Indian Varanus based on three mitochondrial genes. The molecular framework will be useful for the identification of Indian Varanus species and trade products derived from monitors and as such, have important applications for wildlife management and conservation. Here, we used known 14 individual skin pieces of four species of monitor lizards; the partial fragment of three mitochondrial genes (Cyt b, 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA) were amplified for genetic study. In Cyt b, 12S rRNA and 16s rRNA, we observed, 5, 5 and 4 Haplotypes; 71, 69, and 43 Variables sites; 90, 89, and 50 Parsimony Informative sites within four species of Indian monitor lizards, respectively. Despite it, the nucleotide composition was T 26.4, C 32.8, A 29.2 and G11.6; T 18.8, C 29.7, A 34.0 and G 17.5; T 21.7, C 27.3, A 32.5 and G 18.5 in Cyt b, 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA, respectively. The neighbor joining phylogenetic tree and maximum parsimony tree of three mitochondrial genes, showed similar results and reveal that, there are two major clades are present in Indian monitor lizards.</p

<i>Araniella cucurbitina</i>: the first molecular evidence of a Palearctic species of genus <i>Araniella</i> inhabiting India

<p>The present study represents first genetic record of single spider species <i>Araniella cucurbitina</i>, genus <i>Araniella</i> from Uttarakhand, India. There are 12 identified species under <i>Araniella</i> genus and they are distributed in Palearctic region. Here, we used known N = 47 (2 from present study and 45 from GenBank) cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) sequences of <i>A. cucurbitina</i> representing seven different geographical groups, additionally 23 sequences of eight <i>Araniella</i> species were used for phylogenetic relationship. The CO1 (561 bp) sequences of <i>A. cucurbitina</i> consisted of <i>n</i> = 14 haplotypes, where haplotype 14 (Hap 14) represents Indian species, while all 13 haplotypes (Hap1–13) shared between six <i>A. cucurbitina</i> groups. The overall ‘h’ and ‘π’ diversities among seven groups of <i>A. cucurbitina</i> were 0.85291 and 0.00888, respectively, while overall evolutionary divergence was 0.04. The Indian Hap 14, showed minimum sequence divergence (0.02) from Italy and Czech Republic haplotypes (Hap 6), it means it is the closest group compared to others. Evolutionary divergence among eight species of <i>Araniella</i> ranges from 0.003 to 0.114. The maximum likelihood (ML) topology based on 14 haplotypes of <i>A. cucurbitina</i> was divided into two major clades and further two subclades. Furthermore, ML topology between eight species of <i>Araniella</i> was divided into three major clades, where <i>A. cucurbitina</i> and <i>A. proxima</i> clustered together in clade ‘A’, while six others were present together in clade ‘B’ and ‘C’. This study helps to identify the Indian species from the rest of <i>Araniella</i> species and other <i>cucurbitina</i> population across the world. This study further needs to be on a large scale to know the exact status distribution and molecular phylogeography of this single species of genus <i>Araniella</i> from India.</p