Molecular Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Analysis of Dove and Pigeon Species (Aves: Columbidae) of Pakistan, Based on COI Region of Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Doves and Pigeons are the members of living family Columbidae (Order: Columbiformes) having a wide range of taxonomic diversity and geographic distribution. Seven species with one sample each of family Columbidae were collected via random sampling from different districts of Pakistan to carry out this study. The targeted gene region was sequenced and identified by using BLAST tool at National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). CLUSTALW was used for sequence alignment and MEGA6 for reconstruction of phylogenetic trees to predict the effective ancestry of different Columbidae species. The following phylogenetic trees were obtained i.e. Maximum Likelihood tree, Neighborhood joining tree, Maximum parsimony tree and UPGMA tree. In the current study, COI gene barcoding and phylogenetic analysis of family Columbidae gave results of multiple alignment which showed that Columba livia livia and Columba eversmanni, closely resembled as well as Spilopelia senegalensis and Streptopelia decaocta. While Streptopelia tranquebarica and Spilopelia chinensis have great affinity due to small clade difference and Treron phoenicoptera was distinctly related to other species due to large clade difference.