Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

DNA BASED INVESTIGATION OF CENTURY OLD FRESHWATER SPONGE SPECIES FROM INDIAN MUSEUM TANK

Shibananda Rath, Vikas Kumar, Shantanu Kundu, Kaomud Tyagi and Boni Amin Laskar

Abstract

The remarkable diversity of freshwater sponges in Indian museum tank is highly debatable from a century.The study attempted DNA based investigation of freshwater sponges from Indian museum tank for accurate species level identification. The result successfully identified the seven specimens as Spongillalacustris through morphology, similarity search in GenBank and BOLD database and formed distinct clustering in NJphylogeny as Spongilla + Eunapius clade with sufficient genetic divergence. Due to lack of morphological characters and adequate DNA sequences in global database, the remaining three specimens are identified up to family level and retained as Spongillidae sp. This generated DNA barcode data corroborate to identify the freshwater sponges species from other geographical regions and can be helpful to take conservation measures to protect this century old restricted gene pool before they reach on the verge of extinction.