Molecular phylogeny of the cone snail Conus frigidus Reeve, 1848 from Persian Gulf coastal region (Larak and Qeshm) using DNA barcode

Conus frigidus is venomous predatory marine gastropod that is placed in Virgiconus clade of the coast of Qeshm and Lark. The species in this clade is morphologically similar and sometimes named wrongly. Therefore, their molecular identification is important. In this study, DNA was extracted by CTAB. The COI gene fragment was used as a barcode to identify the species. After amplification of the gene and its sequencing, phylogenetic trees were depicted using MEGA 6 and MrBayes 3.2 softwares. The results showed that the nucleotide sequence of COI gene fragment of C. frigidus, on the coast of Qeshm and Lark, have only differ in one nucleotide from the Indo-Pacific sequence of C. frigidus. Phylogeny tree of Virgiconus clade represents a dramatic difference of this species with other clade species. Therefore, it seems that the origins of C. frigidus of the Persian Gulf, was from the species from the east coast of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Identification of species based on COI gene in the species is very useful and precise method when characteristics resemblances among species are high.