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Aplousobranchia ascidians from two different families were integrated with morphological characteristics and molecular phylogenetic analysis for the first time. The present study employed morphological descriptions (colony structures, tunic, zooids, spicules stigmata and test) and a molecular approach, using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of four Aplousobranchia colonial ascidians Aplidium conicum (98%), Aplidium elegans (98%), Didemnum fulgens (92%) and Trididemnum cyanophorum (94%) from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bar-coded sequences were extracted with BLAST format from NCBI and the heritable diversity of the submitted sequences were compared with associated ascidian species. Study revealed that the evolutionary relationship among the ascidian species exhibited the constant clades, which may help for rapid reassessment of morphological characters of the species distributed worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: More than 50 ascidian species distributed in the Palk Bay, Southeast coat of India. Up to a very few molecular work has been performed to determine the evolutionary relationships of ascidians in the world.Objectives: Present study explored the value of mtDNA data in assessing phylogenetic relationships within the family Ascidiacea, Didemnidae, Styelidae, and molecular identification of ascidians from the Palk Bay, Southeast coast of India.Materials and methods: The phylogeny analysis was executed based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences of ascidian species. A BLASTN search can be run to determine the similarity of an unknown DNA sequence (query) with the collection of all known DNA sequences in GenBank.Result: The BLASTN results showed thatDidemnum candidum, Ascidia ahodoriandStyela clavamatch the other listings for these species in GenBank. Mitochondrial COI gene sequences of collected ascidians were submitted to GenBank and obtained the accession numbers.Conclusion: This study is the first report of molecular identification of ascidian species of the Palk Bay, Southeast coast of India. This information about Palk Bay ascidian communities provides a baseline of general biodiversity of that ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]