The Indian Bay of Bengal coast represents an important marine fishing area and serves as a significant source of dietary protein for consumers. These highlights growing concerns regarding the bioaccumulation of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in fish and the associated environmental and human health risks linked to their consumption. Thus, this study aims to assess the accumulation of PTEs (As (arsenic), Sr (strontium), Ti (titanium), Be (beryllium), Cd (cadmium), Sb (antimony), Pb (lead), Hg (mercury), and Li (lithium)) in the muscles of three groupers. The highest value (29.88 ± 0.17 µg/g dry wt.) was observed in Epinephelus areolatus for As, and the lowest in E. bleekeri for Be (0.59 ± 0.20 µg/kg dry wt.). Multivariate analyses (PCA and HCA) confirmed a very close relationship among the As, Cd, Sb, Ti, and Be, while Pb, Hg, Th, and Li had their own specific habitats of bioaccumulation, implying distinct inputs of PTE. Health risk evaluations reveal that As was the most hazardous PTE, with the incidence of toxic effects and cancer risk, especially for habitual consumers. However, Ti is the most hazardous PTE, posing the highest non-carcinogenic risk of the studied species. Metal–protein docking further showed the strong binding of Pb2+ and Sr2+ to Nrf2, p53, and DNMT1, indicating potential disruption of redox regulation, genomic stability, and epigenetic control. The findings indicate that the intake of the specified grouper species poses a significant arsenic-related health risk to people, underscoring the necessity for ongoing monitoring and management of PTE contaminants in fisheries.

The current study was aimed to document the Fish faunal diversity and to estimate genetic divergence using Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequence data of fish fauna from lake Kolleru, the only RAMSAR site from Andhra Pradesh, India. A total of 258 specimens representing 45 species, 30 genera, 19 families, 11 orders were collected from five major sampling stations across the lake, i.e. Gundugolanu, Adavikolanu, Gudivakalanka, Kaikaluru and Akividu. Partial COI sequence data of 38 DNA barcodes belonging to 17 species were generated and used to investigate various parameters of genetic diversity including inter and intra-species divergence, haplotype diversity, and phylogenetic analysis using Kimura 2-paramter (K2P) method. All the results suggested that DNA barcoding is an efficient and reliable tool for species identification and to decipher the species boundaries. Most of the studied fish species exhibited threshold K2P sequence divergence for various hierarchical taxa. The haplotype diversity of the fish population was moderate to high which was accompanied by low nucleotide diversity indicates that haplotypes with close genetic relationships. The constructed Neighbor Joining tree with 1000 bootstrap replications was clearly showed species discrimination corresponding to their genera and families. However, presence of anomalous clustering at intraspecies level in two species, Anabas cobojius and Anguilla bicolor, revealed presence of putative cryptic species or erroneous sequence submissions. The current data on existing fish diversity and COI sequence data may serve as reference library that will help ichthyologists, researchers, biodiversity managers and policy makers in effective planning with regard to fishery conservation strategies.

One of the biggest issues harming aquatic organisms in marine environments, including fish, is heavy metal (HML) pollution, which can impact the health of people who consume these species. This study aimed to evaluate nine HML (Nickel (Ni), Vanadium (V), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe), Selenium (Se), Zinc (Zn), and Manganese (Mn) accumulation in three grouper fish (Epinephelus areolatus, Epinephelus bleekeri, and Epinephelus latifasciatus) with the aim of understanding interspecies differences and estimating the associated environmental and health risks. Results reported that the maximum iron concentration (Fe: 67.44 μg/g wet wt basis) was determined in E. areolatus and the minimum V (0.01 μg/g wet wt basis) in E. latifasciatus, while vanadium in E. bleekeri was below the detection limit. However, the order of elements within species was Fe > Zn > Mn > Se > Cu > Cr > Ni > Co > V for E. areolatus and Fe > Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Se > Mn > Co > V for E. bleekeri and E. latifasciatus. From a health risk perspective, the estimated dietary intake (EDI-HML) and weekly intake (EWI-HML) values for all HML were below the safety thresholds, suggesting no immediate non-carcinogenic risk. Similarly, contamination indices suggested low overall contamination. However, the carcinogenic risk (CR-HML) values for Ni and Cr exceeded the acceptable limit, suggesting a potential long-term health concern, particularly among children. Continuous monitoring of HML accumulation in edible marine fish and the implementation of pollution control measures are therefore strongly recommended.

The present study assessed the impact of three different commercial microencapsulated diets (MEDs) on the quality performance of larval and post-larval stages of Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) by evaluating six key quality indicators. The results showed that at PL10 – mean survival percentage ranged from 59.67 ± 2.33 to 62.00 ± 3.21%; average body length varied from 9.11 ± 0.22 to 9.68 ± 0.23mm; size variation (CV) ranged from 4.07 ± 0.52 to 4.53 ± 0.65%; salinity stress test ranged from 90.11 ± 1.22 to 92.67 ± 3.18%, formalin stress from 93.00 ± 2.52 to 95.39 ± 1.73%, and swimming rate from 83.00 ± 3.51 to 85.00 ± 3.79%. Significant improvements were observed in all quality parameters measured in the hatchery for both larvae and post-larvae fed with MEDs. These findings suggest that the use of microencapsulation technology can enhance the nutritional value and bioavailability of feed, thereby improving survival and growth outcomes and providing insights into stage-specific nutritional vulnerabilities during the hatchery phase in P. vannamei.

The present study assessed the hatchery performance of Penaeus vannamei between the mysis 1 and postlarva 10 stages, in a zero-exchange biofloc system under three treatments with different carbon sources, fructose, lactose, and dextrose, in a 15:1 fixed C:N ratio with a stocking density of 100 L−1 along with control treatment. The study used a stocking density of 100 L−1. Water quality and survival performance were compared among treatments. The results revealed that adequate water quality parameters were more appropriate for production in the BFT treatment than in the control, and analysis of variance revealed that there were significant differences between treatment groups for NO2−N, NO3−N, and alkalinity (P < 0.05). Survival was significantly greater in the BFT treatment group than in the control group. Dextrose exhibited the highest survival rate for PL1 at 93

Diversity of marine fishes was studied along the coast of Bay of Bengal from four selected landing stations of Andhra Pradesh, Southeast coast of India during the period from December 2016 to November 2018.A total of 171 species belonging to 14 orders, 63 families and 128 genera have been recorded during the study period.It is evident that marine fish production is well below the production targets.The less availability of some species indicates a remarkable decline in the diversity of fishes.The anthropogenic disturbances and climatic changes are reported to be the factors affecting the fish population and diversity.Therefore, we are in the stage of need of the hour to conserve marine biodiversity in coastal Andhra Pradesh.The current study also recorded the IUCN status of 171 fish species in various categories of conservation status.

DNA-based identification and control of disease spreading mosquito species: A reviewRajesh Dhakane, Kiran Ahirrao, Anant Shinde, Janardhan Kotule

| The grouper fish, Epinephelus Bloch, 1793 represents an iconic genus of the family Serranidae and order Perciformes. They are highly-prized food fishes intended for subsistence, artisanal, recreational and commercial fisheries throughout their geographic range. Despite their economic importance, the status of grouper fishes has been increasingly imperiled through overfishing activities. The conservation efforts have also been constrained with this highly skewed Epinephelus. Hence, in order to save this esteemed resource, effective conservation and rehabilitation strategies need to be planned and implemented in the country. However, it requires the knowledge of the current status of grouper fish diversity which is not yet carried comprehensively. Hence this study was proposed to review the systematic study of the genus Epinephelus to fill the gaps in diversity studies of India. The study also documented the present IUCN status of the listed species of Epinephelus under different categories of conservation status.

Anabas Cuvier, 1816 (Pisces: Osteichthyes: Anabantidae) constitutes a major proportion of fisheries with great ecological and commercial importance in lake Kolleru, Andhra Pradesh, India. Morphological analysis based on 54 adult specimens from different parts of the lake revealed two putative species, Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1795) and A. oligolepis (Bleeker, 1855) which are very closely related to and barely distinguished by few characteristics (e.g. body depth) exclusively in fully matured specimens. In juvenile and sub-adult specimens, considerable overlap in the range of colour patterns has been observed, inturn it may lead to taxonomic confusion. DNA barcoding is a promising technique for accurate species level identification based on partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. A total of five DNA barcode sequences were generated using universal primers. The average Kimura 2 Parameter (K2P) distances within species and genera were 0.5% and 1.3% respectively. These barcodes discriminated the congeneric species with lower genetic distance when compared to other taxa. This may aid in deciding the threshold value to delineate the species complex of Anabas from lake Kolleru. Neighbour joining (NJ) tree formed two major clades each shared with accessions to the same species. The maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree was constructed using COI sequences of Anabantidae which were complemented with the sequences of six other families of order Anabantiformes and the phylogenetic position of Anabantidae was discussed. Future studies are needed for deeper insights into genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships of Anabantiformes using multiple molecular markers.

The present study was aimed to investigate the antimicrobial activity of marine gastropod i.e. Purfura bufo. The antimicrobial activity was estimated in extracts of body tissues of Purfura bufo against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and fungi like Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium notatum. The maximum inhibition zone was observed in Klebsiella pneumonia (26 mm) and minimum in Penicillium notatum (11 mm). It is evident from the current study that significant reduction in growth of bacteria and fungi was observed with methanolic extracts.

Available online at www.lbp.world ABSTRACT espite the ecological and commercial importance of Groupers (fish subfamily DEpinephelinae), their taxonomy and systematics are still much debated. Reasons for this are the low level of morphometric variability and the relatively poor phylogenetic information borne by the morpho-anatomical characters used so far in diagnosing species. The present study was carried out to find genetic divergence of six species in the genus Epinephelus and to find the phylogenetic signal possessed by using 88 partial mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) sequences belong to Indian waters. Our results showed that the mean interlineage distance was remarkably higher than mean intra-lineage distance based on K2-P (Kimura 2Parameter) model which is crucial in deciphering the species boundaries. Also, the Neighbour-Joining tree revealed distinct clusters shared by sequences of same species of the genus Epinephelus. Weekly Science