Phylogenetic observation in Ariidae, Bagridae and Plotosidae catfishes by COI gene sequence analysis

To understand the phylogenetic status of Ariidae, Bagridae and Plotosidae catfishes, this study was planned using the barcode gene, cytochrome oxidase I (COI). Totally 71 species were used in phylogenetic reconstructions under maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference criteria. The oneway ANOVA showed that the three catfish families are significantly different (F = 19.79, d.f. = 3; 116, P< 0.0001 (Plotosidae); F = 44.21, d.f. = 3; 986, P< 0.0001 (Ariidae); F = 24.83, d.f. = 3; 1322, P< 0.0001 (Bagridae). In MP, ML and BI based phylogenetic tree of Ariidae, Plicofollis genus displayed as a monophyletic group with higher bootstrap and posterior probability values for all the species except two species of Neoarius, which intervened separating P. polystaphylodon. In the phylogenetic tree of Plotoside, Plotosus genus displayed as monophyletic group with higher bootstrap and posterior probability values for all the eight species. In the case of Bagridae phylogeentic tree, Mystus genus displayed as a monophyletic group with higher bootstrap and posterior probability values for all the species except Mystus montanus forming a distant and distinct clade whereas Mystus tengara collides into monophyletic clade when Neotropius genuswas removed. By this study we could establish a phylogenetic hypothesis for all the 36 catfish families and examine the monophyly status of the subfamilies and genera.