DNA barcoding of the Bryde’s Whale Balaenoptera edeni Anderson (Cetacea: Balaenopteridae) washed ashore along Kerala coast, India

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A Bijukumar
S.S Jijith
U. Suresh Kumar
S George

Abstract

Three whales washed ashore along Kerala coast of southwest India were identified as Bryde’s Whale Balaenoptera edeni Anderson based on sequencing of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and cytochrome b genes. The results of mtDNA sequencing in the present study confirm the presence of B. edeni species of ‘Bryde’s Whale complex’ in the coastal waters of India.

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Section
Communications
Author Biographies

A Bijukumar

A. Bijukumar is currently working as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala. His fields of research include taxonomy and biodiversity informatics. Earlier he worked as Scientific Officer of State Committee on Science, Technology and Environment and Member Secretary-in-Charge and Principal Scientific Officer of Kerala State Biodiversity Board. Initiated major works on marine biodiversity informatics for Kerala and DNA barcoding of marine mammals and molluscs. In this paper, sampling, photography, morphological taxonomy and the paper preparation was done by him.

S.S Jijith

S.S. Jijith possesses Masters in Biotechnology and is currently working as a project fellow in Regional facility for DNA fingerprinting at RGCB. His current project addresses the development of a reference DNA barcoding database of selected mammals of Kerala Forest. For this work DNA isolation and amplification was done by him.

U. Suresh Kumar

U. Suresh Kumar, holds MPhil degree in bioinformatics and is currently working as the DNA examiner of the Regional Facility for DNA Fingerprinting at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Trivandrum. His major research interests are DNA barcoding and DNA fingerprinting. Currently conducting training programmes on molecular markers, human DNA fingerprinting and DNA barcoding. Sequence analysis of the work was done by him in the work.

S George

Dr. S. George is currently working as a Scientist in the chemical biology laboratory of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum. His main area of research is centered around amphibians of Western Ghats with particular interest in DNA barcoding and bioprospecting. At present he is the Principal Investigator of DNA barcoding projects on amphibians, mammals and molluscs of India. In this paper he has contributed towards the writing of molecular taxonomy and interpretation of data.