Molecular identification of forensically important blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) with a record of a new species from Maharashtra India
Fahd M Abd-Algalil and Sureshchandra P Zambare
The utility of Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit I gene (COI) DNA barcode for the identification of four species of forensically important blowflies of the genus Chrysomya (Diptera: Calliphoridae), from Maharashtra, India, was tested to confirm the morphological identification. And in molecular identification, fragment of 658 bp of COI gene was sequenced of four specimens. In the genus of Chrysomya, the means of the nucleotide composition frequency distribution were G= 15.66%, C =15.5%, A= 30.55% and T= 38.3%. In the phylogeny report it was shown that Chrysomya saffranea and Chrysomya megacephala are close ancestors and monophyletic which means that they are genetically similar but the morphological appearance of these species can be distinguished. Chrysomya sp. and Chrysomya rufifacies are also monophyletic; both are genetically close with 0.3% distance. And both Chrysomya sp. and Chrysomya rufifacies are slightly similar morphologically, and both are hairy maggot species, but they differ from each other in some of the morphological marks. So we consider the Chrysomya sp. as a new species and named as Chrysomya indiana.
The result displays the utility of COI gene as an identification marker, since the nucleotide variations give a clear and powerful difference between species. Four new COI gene sequences have been added to GenBank and out of them one was consider as a new species, therefore, these sequences can be of concern for correct species identification for future workers.
Fahd M Abd-Algalil, Sureshchandra P Zambare. Molecular identification of forensically important blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) with a record of a new species from Maharashtra India. J Entomol Zool Stud 2017;5(1):13-19.