Carinotetraodon travancoricus or Malabar puffer fish is an endemic species described from rivers originating from the Western Ghats in South India. This species is captured extensively as an aquarium fish and is having substantial demand in global markets. However, being prone to overfishing and impacts of anthropogenic alterations in its habitats, IUCN has categorized it as a threatened/vulnerable species. Since, knowledge on variability of wild populations could help in their conservation and management, morphometric and genotypic analyses were carried out in natural populations of C. travancoricus inhabiting two geographically separated rivers Pamba and Chalakkudy. Mean values of eleven length parameters measured in 456 males and 439 females inhabiting these rivers revealed significant difference (ANOVA, F = 10.2 p < .001) between sexes and between females inhabiting two rivers. Principal component analysis revealed two factors in males and three factors in females, explained variance of 83.62% and 89.94% in respective sexes. Results of both PCA and discriminant function analysis indicated perceptibly high degree of separation between individuals inhabiting the two rivers. A total of 25 COI sequences were generated from C. travancoricus collected from rivers Pamba (n = 14) and Chalakkudy (n = 11). Sequence alignment revealed considerable base substitutions between samples from both rivers, indicating possibility of population differences. AMOVA analysis also provided significant Fst value (0.622; p‐value .00) in support of population difference between individuals of both rivers. Interpopulation genetic distance reached upto 2.50%, high enough to confirm genetic diversity among individuals, revealing perceptible population events within this species. The present results indicated high degree of population difference between C. travancoricus inhabiting geographically separated rivers Pamba and Chalakkudy as evidenced from both morphometric and genotypic analyses.

中文翻译：

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Carinotetraodon travancoricus自然种群的形态和遗传变异

Carinotetraodon travancoricus或马拉巴尔河豚鱼是一种特有物种，描述于印度南部西高止山脉的河流中。该物种被广泛捕捞为水族馆鱼类，并且在全球市场上有大量需求。但是，由于容易被过度捕捞和栖息地人为改变的影响，自然保护联盟将其归类为受威胁/易受伤害的物种。由于野生种群的变异性知识可以帮助其保存和管理，因此对travancoricus的自然种群进行了形态计量学和基因型分析。居住在两条地理上分开的河流Pamba和Chalakkudy。在居住在这些河流中的456位男性和439位女性中测量的11个长度参数的平均值显示， 两性之间以及居住在两条河流中的女性之间存在显着差异（ANOVA，F  = 10.2 p <.001）。主成分分析显示，男性中有两个因素，女性中有三个因素，解释了性别差异分别为83.62％和89.94％。PCA和判别函数分析的结果均表明，居住在两条河流中的个体之间的分隔程度明显较高。从C产生总共25个COI序列。travancoricus从河流PAMBA（收集Ñ  = 14）和恰拉库德伊（n  = 11）。序列比对显示两条河流的样本之间存在相当大的碱基取代，表明种群差异的可能性。AMOVA分析还提供了显着的F st值（0.622；p值.00）来支持两条河流个体之间的人口差异。种群间遗传距离高达2.50％，足以证实个体之间的遗传多样性，从而揭示了该物种内的可感知种群事件。目前的结果表明，C之间的人口差异程度很高。形态计量学和基因型分析均证实，travancoricus居住在地理上分开的河流Pamba和Chalakkudy。