Molecular Forensics of Indian Wildlife: Species Identification through COI Gene Barcoding and Bioinformatics Analysis.

In wildlife forensics, precise species identification is essential, particularly in cases involving poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and biodiversity conservation. Molecular technologies are necessary for accurate forensic analysis since traditional morphological methods frequently fail when biological specimens are processed, incomplete, or degraded. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has proven particularly useful in these situations because of its large copy number, maternal mode of inheritance, and increased stability in damaged tissues. The cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene is one of the most commonly used mtDNA markers for DNA barcoding due to its high interspecies variability, evolutionary conservation, and inclusion in extensive international databases. This study examined the COI gene sequences of ten often encountered domestic and wild Indian species: Elephas maximus (elephant), Bos gaurus (gaur), Bos taurus (domestic cow), Axis axis (chital), Axis porcinus (hog deer), Macaca mulatta (rhesus macaque), Pavo cristatus (Indian peacock), Sus scrofa (wild boar), and Panthera tigris (tiger) and Panthera pardus (leopard). COI sequences that are publicly accessible were obtained from NCBI GenBank database. BLAST was used for sequence validation, and Clustal Omega was used for multiple sequence alignment. Using MEGA12, a neighbor-joining tree was constructed and pairwise distance analysis was performed to evaluate genetic distance and phylogenetic relationships. Significant genetic divergence was found among the species under study, and the phylogenetic tree showed grouping patterns that aligned with established taxonomic relationships. These results demonstrate that COI-based DNA barcoding is a reliable method for differentiating between closely related species.