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Undergraduate Research Day UMT 2018
Molecular Detection of Megalocytivirus in Common Platy (Xiphophorus
Maculatus)
Surrin Kumar Palakrishnan
Supervisor: Dr Sandra Catherine Zainathan
Bachelor of Science in Agrotechnology (Aquaculture)
School of Fisheries and Aquaculture
In Malaysia, ornamental fish culture is very popular. With the rapid development of
ornamental fish culture, outbreaks of viral disease occurred frequently in common
platy, Xiphophorus maculatus in culture farms. Thus, the aim of this project was to
detect the presence or absence of Megalocytivrus in common platy collected from
Senai, Johor. The nested PCR analysis was conducted according to modified method
of Rimmer et al. (2012) and Zainathan et al. (2017). Out of 50 samples, nested PCR
analysis demonstrated 6 positive pooled samples (n=30) for the presence of
Megalocytivirus. Only darkened body colour was observed with no internal clinical
signs in the samples. Sequence analysis of MCP gene showed 91% query cover and
98% similarities respectively with Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV).
Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of MCP gene revealed that the viruses from genus
Megalocytivirus is the closest to the ISKNV complete genome and can be classified
into Megolocytivirus genoype I.