The first report on a new Tor species, Tor barakae Arunkumar & Basudha 2003, from Bangladesh using DNA barcoding technique

Mahseer are large-scale fish of the Cyprinidae family that inhabit South and Southeast Asian mountainous streams, rivers, and reservoirs. Tor tor and Tor putitora, two species of the Tor genus, were reportedly found in Bangladesh. This study aimed to confirm the species level of specimens collected from the Sangu River. The collected samples were identified using the DNA barcoding technique, followed by amplifying 645 bp of the cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 gene (COI) using the FishF1/FishR1 universal primer. The sequence similarity was conducted using BOLD and NCBI databases which showed 99.85–100 % similarity to the reference genome. The genetic divergence between T. putitora vs. SRI, BT, and ST was found to be 0.0239, 0.0239, and 0.0238, respectively. The genetic divergence between T. tor vs. SRI, BT, and ST was 0.0272, 0.0272, and 0.0270, respectively. In the phylogenetic tree, two clusters were formed where collected specimens (SRI, BT, and ST) formed a subcluster with the reference genome (NC_056296.1 T. barakae) with 100 % bootstrap support. This study's findings revealed the presence of a new Tor species named Tor barakae in the Sangu River basin in Bangladesh.