Advancing DNA Barcoding to Elucidate Elasmobranch Biodiversity in Malaysian Waters

The data provided in this article are partial fragments of the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial gene (CO1) sequences of 175 tissues sampled from sharks and batoids collected from Malaysian waters, from June 2015 to June 2022. The barcoding was done randomly for six specimens from each species, so as to authenticate the code. We generated barcodes for 67 different species in 20 families and 11 orders. DNA was extracted from the tissue samples following the Chelex protocols and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the barcoding universal primers FishF2 and FishR2. A total of 654 base pairs (bp) of barcode CO1 gene from 175 samples were sequenced and analysed. The genetic sequences were blasted into the NCBI GenBank and Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD). A review of the blast search confirmed that there were 68 valid species of sharks and batoids that occurred in Malaysian waters. We provided the data of the COI gene mid-point rooting phylogenetic relation trees and analysed the genetic distances among infra-class and order, intra-species, inter-specific, inter-genus, inter-familiar, and inter-order. We confirmed the addition of Squalus edmundsi, Carcharhinus amboinensis, Alopias superciliosus, and Myliobatis hamlyni as new records for Malaysia. The establishment of a comprehensive CO1 database for sharks and batoids will help facilitate the rapid monitoring and assessment of elasmobranch fisheries using environmental DNA methods.