Phylogenetic analysis of the Dactylogyroides longicirrus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) based on the 18S and ITS 1 ribosomal genes

The present study describes the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Dactylogyroides longicirrus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) infecting the gill filaments of fish Puntius sophore from the site Guwahati, Assam, India. The parasite Dactylogyroides longicirrus (Tripathi, 1959) Gusev, 1976 from Northeast Indian region is presented based on sequence data of a 738 base-pair fragment of ribosomal 18S small subunit and first internal transcribed spacer (ITS 1). Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using neighbour joning and maximum parsimony methods and the results support the validation of D. longicirrus. The study is also supported by secondary structure model prediction by using minimum free energy which can be considered a promising tool for monogenean species identification. This is the first report of this parasite from Northeast region of India, with this, the 18S and ITS 1 rDNA region amplified in the study is also the first sequence of the genus Dactylogyroides.