Characterization of threatened endemic fish Osteobrama belangeri (Valenciennes, 1844) and related species from North-East India based on morphological and molecular analysis.

Four species of the genus Osteobrama collected from five different sampling sites of Chindwin and Barak river basin of North-East India, namely O. belangeri, O. cotio, O. cunma and O. feae, were characterized. Meristic study showed differences in anal fin rays count and lateral line scales. Morphometric analysis revealed significant differences among Osteobrama species. In Truss analysis, a clear pattern of differentiation was observed among the four species with discriminant function analysis assigning 100% correctly to the particular species. In molecular analysis, four Osteobrama species collected were barcoded with COI and 16S rRNA sequences and phylogenetically these four species formed two distinct clusters, O. belangeri form one separate cluster, from the other three species i.e. O. cotio, O. cunma and O. feae. High-resolution clusters generated (NJ trees) aided the groupings of species corresponding to their genera and families which are in confirmation to the values generated by COI Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery bioinformatics platform.