Phenotypic and genotypic analysis of Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea Megerle von Muhlfeld, 1811 (Venerida, Cyrenidae) in Kelantan, Malayia

Abstract

The existence of Corbicula in Malaysia has little attention, which was scarcely being reported. Recent research presents the phylogenetics analysis of Corbicula fluminea using phenotypic and genotypic in Kelantan, Malaysia. The phenotypic analysis of C.fluminea was examined based on the morphotypes and morphometric characters. The mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b (cytb) gene analysed the genotypes. Results, a distinct morphotypes round (R) was found for all evaluated samples. In addition, five morphometric characters such as shell height (SH), shell width (SW), umbo length (UL), anterior length (AL), and posterior length (PL) were significantly different (p<0.05) between the C.fluminea populations. Discriminant analysis shows a significant difference in the characters among evaluated populations. The analysis of genotypes validates the evaluated Corbicula as C.fluminea through employing the mtDNA cyt b sequences. The phylogenetic tree of mtDNA cyt b formed three genotypes. Phylogenetic trees revealed polymorphism and low genetic variations among geographically isolated populations, which were consistent with the phenotypic characterisation. Thus, these findings elucidate the variation of C.fluminea and suggest that C.fluminea in Kelantan is descended from a common ancestor.