DNA Barcoding of Some Avian Species Killed Due to Road Vehicle Collision in Vidharbha Region, India

DNA Barcoding is considering a novel tool for the identification of species and for discovering the new species by using molecular methods. The mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) serve as fast and accurate method for species identification by molecular methods. The present study was carried out on the three state highways of Vidharbha region, passing through Amravati District which includes Amravati - Chandur Railway state highway (passing through Pohra - Malkhed reserve forest, Amravati-Paratwada state highway passing through agricultural landscape and Paratwada - Semadoh state highway passing through Melghat Tiger reserve. The pectorial muscle tissue samples of the birds killed due to vehicle collision were collected during the study period from 2015 to 2017. Samples on collection immediately dipped in 95 % ethanol, labelled it and brought to the laboratory where they were stored at -20 degrees C for DNA isolation and barcoding analysis. The generated DNA barcodes has been submitted to gene bank and accession numbers for were received. In this study the DNA barcodes has been generated for 17 road killed avian species. The present study, probably for the first time is reporting the barcode sequences of 6 different birds species from India, as there were no other sequences for these bird's species found in NCBI database from India. The 6 bird species are Prinia inornata (Plain Prinia), Prinia socialis (Ashy Prinia), Streptopelia senegalensis (Laughing Dove), Otus bakkamoena (Indian Scops Owl), Coturnix backgammon (Common Quail) and Caprimulgus indicus (Indian Nightjar). The present study also demonstrated that the DNA barcoding technique can be accurately applied to the identification of road-killed avian carcasses.