Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis of Indian Apple Snail

Apple snails (Ampullariidae) belong to a diversified freshwater family which occurs in pantropical habitats. The Indian apple snail, Pila globosa and other operculate snails are grouped in Architaenioglossa which also includes Viviparidae and Cyclophoridae. In our study, a concise relationship of Ampullariidae with Viviparidae and Cyclophoridae has been elucidated by using partial nucleotide sequence of cytochrome b gene. Pila globosa was collected from freshwater habitats of Berhampore (West Bengal) and its morphometric analysis is determined as an addendum to its phylogeny. The multiple sequence alignment is performed in MEGA v5.2 to reconstruct molecular affinities within the family, Ampullariidae. The phylogenetic tree is constructed with 1000 bootstrap replications in RAxML software. The outgroup species considered for the analysis in our study is chosen from Heterobranchia as it is a sister group to the clade Caenogastropoda. It is observed that family Ampullariidae formed a nested cluster and showed a polyphyletic affinity with Viviparidae and Cyclophoridae.