Population Structuring of Endangered Loach (Botia dario) and Butter Catfish (Ompok pabda) in Bangladesh: An Initiative to Identify Local Conservation Units

This Project was funded by the Ministry of Education, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

The inland water bodies of Bangladesh are rich in aquatic biodiversity with ≈265 freshwater fish species and 59 of those fish species are considered small indigenous species (SIS). SIS are considered to play a vital role in freshwater ecosystems and most of them are popular edible fish. Due to anthropogenic activities as well as natural calamities, majority of the SIS species are now under severe threat. Thus, different natural populations of Bangladesh have experienced serious stock/population decline in freshwater habitats. In particular, the loach (Botia dario) and butter catfish (Ompok pabda) have been declared as the critically endangered species. Moreover, recent climate change issues can make these two species very vulnerable. So, we need to take immediate plan and policies to save these two popular SIS species in Bangladesh. Modern genetic (particularly genomic) approaches are shedding light to effectively manage different problems regarding commercial and ecological aspects. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) has been found to be a powerful genomic tool for effective conservation of wild populations. So, GBS can play an important role in documenting population structure, marker discovery and establishing appropriate management and conservation units of B. dario and O. pabda. There is geographic or regional impact on phenotypic and genetic diversity among individuals. Thus, there is opportunity to test this effect on organismal diversity for identifying genetically and/or phenotypically distinct populations. Testing on phenotypic or genetic variation provides partial/little insights but combination of these two can provide powerful and precise insights. Therefore, in the proposed research, a combination of phenotypic (morphological) and genetic (DNA sequence) variations will be observed between different populations of B. dario and O. pabda to identify and establish effective management units.

Amount: 22,00,000 BDT

• Research Project