DNA Barcoding of Pheasant Species of Himachal Pradesh Rate of Evolution and Identification of Species

Abstract

Richness of endemic species is considered important for biodiversity conservation and avifaunal regionalization, but no detail studies concerning the sub-regional endemism have yet been done in Himachal Pradesh. The present study is to investigate the assemblage of Himachal Pradesh pheasants western tragopan Tragopanmelanocephalus, cheer pheasant Catreus wallichii, Himalayan monal Lophophorus impejanus, kalij pheasant Lophura leucomelanos endemics of each avifaunal sub region present as a captive stock in aviaries of Himachal Pradesh and develop the panel of de novo SSR and SNP markers which will be useful in establishing the parentage and genotyping of western tragopan, that will ultimately help the breeders to check the problem of inbreeding during conservation and breeding program. DNA profiling has become popular as a rapid and reliable technique for species identification. In addition to morphological keys, a public reference library containing short DNA sequencing of all known species.