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Egypt is an important geographical location for wintering puddle ducks. In order to investigate their relationships, 30 ducks from genus Anas were sampled from different aquatic regions of New Damietta, Damietta Governorate, Egypt. Many phylogenetic studies used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) as an effective molecular marker. The COI barcodes of six ducks species were analyzed in this work from one genus Anas belonging to family Anatidae. The studied species of ducks were identified correctly from their DNA barcodes. The distances were calculated between barcodes by utilizing of utilizing Kimura two parameter (K2P). Maximum Likelihood was used to construct a phylogenetic tree, which grouped the entire genus into three divergent clades. Within family Anatidae, COI analysis supported a basal position of Anas clypeata and Anas querquedula. It also supported the sister group relationship between Anas carolinensis and Anas platyrhynchos and the cluster comprising Anas acuta and Anas strepera. It was concluded that most Anatidae species have distinct COI sequences. DNA barcoding is a powerful molecular tool for species identification and phylogenetic inference of Anatidae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study of analyzing and identifying the hedgehog community in Egypt using a molecular marker especially it includes the Four-toed Hedgehog which is found in Gebel Elba but has never been signalized in Egypt. Thirty-two specimens are representing seven species and subspecies of hedgehogs were sampled. Five external measurements and eight cranial measurements were used. DNA was extracted and cytochrome b gene sequences data were analyzed. Maximum Likelihood tree based on Cyt b sequences reveals that there are two separate genetic clusters, one cluster for genus Atelerix and the other includes Hemiechinus and Paraechinus members. Genetic relationship between three subspecies of genus Paraechinus was detected, the morphological relationship was studied but there is a difficult to distinguish between them. These results strongly suggest that cytochrome b gene has been confirmed as an effective tool among mitochondrial genes, with high power of differentiation for species identification and characterization in both taxonomy and forensic science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]