Diversity, Distribution, Biology and Molecular Phylogeny of Catfishes
The diversification of Siluriformes is unresolved mystery and several biogeographic scenarios exist. In the traditional hypothesis, Siluriforms have a Gondwanan origin while their extended distribution is the result of dispersal through available Paleocene and Eocene connections and continental passages to Laurasian areas.Gondwana region of central India shows some affinities to Gondwana land. It has been documented that Gondwanaland is ancient super-continent that incorporated present-day South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. The name Gondwanaland was coined in reference to Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations in the Gondwana region of central India, which are similar to formations of the same age on Southern Hemisphere continents. Therefore, understanding of evolutionary history of catfishes of Gondwana region of India becomes essential to get better insights in catfish evolutionary biology. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using the DNA sequences mitochondrial genes will provide better insights in to diversification of catfishes.
Functional Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Coleopteran Beetles
Coleopteran beetles are divided in to five suborders Adephega, Archostemata, Myxophaga, Protocoleoptera and Polyphaga. There are several families are present in each suborder with more than 100 species in each family. We are carrying out the extensive surveys and we are preparing check list for few families of Coleopteran beetles from Vidarbha region (Gondia, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur Districts). These check list will helps in understanding the diversity and distribution of Coleopteran beetles in Vidarbha region. Our main objective of this study is to understand the functional morphology and phylogenetic relationships in Coleopteran beetles. Therefore special emphasis will be given to Cucujiformia infra order to understand the functional morphology and molecular phylogeny. DNA sequences of Coleopteran beetles will be compared in order to build a comprehensive maximum likelihood phylogeny. The divergence times will be estimated from fossil-based calibrations in relaxed-molecular clock analyses.
Functional Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Spiders
Spiders exhibit extraordinary and distinct morphological and ecological diversity and play vital roles in most of the ecosystems. Several studies have described the diversity and distribution of spiders based on morphological characters. Molecular data is also used extensively to resolve the spider phylogeny. These studies have made significant contribution in spider taxonomy; however, many branches of the spiders remain unresolved. Understanding the phylogeny of spiders is limited because of their vast species diversity, complex morphological characteristics and inadequate molecular data. Therefore, deciphering the evolutionary history of spiders is one of the most important and complicated problems in spider biology. Mouthpart, gonads and other head structures play important role in functional morphology of spiders. Understanding of functional morphology of spiders will provide complementary data documenting the evolution of feeding and mating strategies during the past 400 million years. Molecular and morphological data together will provide better insights in to an evolutionary process of spiders. With these scenarios in mind, the extensive surveys will be carried out and check list for spiders from Vidarbha region (Gadchiroli, Chandrapur Districts) will be prepared. These check list will helps in understanding the diversity and distribution of spiders in Vidarbha region. The phylogenetic relationships and timing of diversification of spiders using the DNA sequences of mitochondrial genes will be carried out. Along with DNA sequences of mitochondrial genes of spider specimens of Gondwana region, all available DNA sequences of related spiders will be compared in order to build a comprehensive maximum likelihood phylogeny. Similarly studies will be carried out to understand the functional morphology in spider species using the stereo microscopy and electron microscopy.