First report of parasitic isopod Nerocila orbignyi (Cymothoidae) from India with its molecular characterization

Sandeep Kumar Mohapatra; Smrutirekha Acharya; Sameer Sura; Swarup Ranjan Mohanty; Rajesh Kumar Behera; Jaya Kishor Seth; Basudev Tripathy; Anil Mohapatra

doi:10.1007/s12639-022-01469-3

First report of parasitic isopod Nerocila orbignyi (Cymothoidae) from India with its molecular characterization

J Parasit Dis. 2022 Jun;46(2):483-490. doi: 10.1007/s12639-022-01469-3. Epub 2022 Feb 4.

Authors

Sandeep Kumar Mohapatra¹, Smrutirekha Acharya¹, Sameer Sura², Swarup Ranjan Mohanty¹, Rajesh Kumar Behera¹, Jaya Kishor Seth², Basudev Tripathy³, Anil Mohapatra¹

Affiliations

¹ Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam, Odisha, 761002 India.
² Post graduate Department of Zoology, Berhampur University, Berhampur, Odisha 760007 India.
³ Western Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Akurdi, Pune, 411044 India.

Abstract

The present report provides the first material evidence of Nerocila orbignyi (Guérin-Méneville, 1832) collected from two different landing centres of the Chilika lagoon, thus claiming the first report of this parasite from India. One of the specimens was recorded from the host fish species Plotosus canius Hamilton 1822, constituting the first host record for this isopod. A key for the identification of N. orbignyi among its congeners is also provided. Molecular characterization of Cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) gene of N. orbignyi was based on one specimen submitted for the first time to the NCBI database. This parasite is differentiated from the other available sequences of its related congeners retrieved from the NCBI and BOLD database by 26-34% in the Kimura 2 Parameter (K2P) distance and belongs to a separate cluster in Maximum likelihood (ML) tree analysis.

Keywords: COI gene; Chilika lagoon; Identification keys; Isopod.