Research Projects

The aims of project work are carried out population dynamics and phylogenetic analysis of calanoid copepods from Ennore, Marina and Kovalam (East coast, Tamilnadu) stations. The diversity of calanoid copepods were studied during October 2018 to September 2019. The highest diversity was recorded at Kovalam followed by Marina and Ennore stations. However, highest density was recorded at Marina stations. In the present study, Tortanus forcipatus reported first time in Chennai coast. Taxonomic description of 32 calanoid copepods has been reported and these characters are used for construction of morphological phylogenetic tree. Apart from this, mtCOI and 18s rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced for construction of molecular phylogenetic tree. 20 and 15 calanoid species were sequenced on mtCOI and 18s rRNA region, respectively. Based on the phylogeny, morphological phylogenetic tree was consistent with molecular phylogeny in the super family level. Topologies of morphology, 18s rRNA and mtCOI showed clusters of discordance between species levels

The following points are achievements in the projects • 32 species of calanoid copepods have been reported from the Chennai coast. • Tortanus forcipatus, species of Tortanidae copepod is reported for the first time from Chennai coast. • Database of Taxonomic characters of calanoid copepods species has been constructed. • mtCOI coding region for 20 calanoid copepod species has been uploaded in gene database. • 18s rRNA of 15 calanoid copepod species has been uploaded in the gene database. • Phylogenetic tree based on morphological data has been constructed. • Phylogenetic tree based on mtCOI and 18s rRNA also been constructed. • It’s the first time in India the comparison between morphological characters and mtCOI and 18s rRNA marker gene of copepod is studied.