fa عمومى General كاربردي Applicable <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:82%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">This study assessed the biodiversity of Notopteridae family by involving <i>Notopterus notopterus</i> and <i>Chitala chitala</i> because of their contribution to the ecological balance of freshwater habitats, food security, economic importance and aquaculture. Both fish species are under pressure and facing threats in their natural habitats and especially <i>Chitala chitala </i>is considered near threatened<i>.</i> Fish were sampled from the natural riverine population of </span></span><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">the Punjab, Pakistan including </span></span><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">Taunsa Barrage, Trimmu Head and Chashma Barrage</span></span><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">. Fish samples were recognized morphologically, and the <i>COI</i> gene sequence was used to prepare them for genetic study. Maximum Likelihood (ML) trees were constructed using MEGA 11 and the K2P model</span></span><i><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">.</span></span></i><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black"> A total 30 individual of <i>N. notopterus</i> and <i>C. chitala</i> (15 of each) were identified by using morphometric and truss analysis. Twenty-five morphological, five meristic and 27 landmarks were measured. In this study, all meristic characters of <i>N. notopterus </i>and<i> C. chitala</i> species showed non-significant (<i>p</i>>0.05) results and 14 out of 25 morphological characters of <i>N. notopterus</i> showed significant (<i>p</i><0.05) results while <i>C. chitala</i> showed non-significant results in all morphological characters. Clustered analysis of <i>N. notopterus</i> and <i>C. chitala</i> showed higher mean values of the external morphological traits in Taunsa barrage and Chashma barrage, respectively. In truss study PC1 and PC2 revealed 74.9% and 11.2% in <i>N. notopterus</i> and 85.6% and 11.5% in <i>C. chitala,</i> respectively. The overall mean of base composition of family Notopteridae was observed as T (29.45%), C (26.17%), A (27.75%), G (16.63%). Generally, GC content (42.8%) was less than AT content (57.2%), which revealed a distinct pattern of anti-G bias. The genetic distance within two genus of family Notopteridae species were found to be 0 while between species, the mean distance varied from </span></span><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">0.002 to 0.149</span></span><span lang="TR" new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="color:black">.&nbsp; Phylogenetic tree revealed the identity in the range of 99% for sequences of<i> N. notopterus</i> and <i>C. chitala</i> that clustered in two clads due to two distinct genera but having same family. In this study, 12 barcodes of family Notopteridae with an e-value of 0.0 and a maximum similarity of 99&ndash;100% with a maximum length of 600 bp were found. The current work developed the idea for the establishment of the Pakistani fish gene bank, which is still needed, and supported the effectiveness of the <i>COI </i>gene for the species identification in the riverine population. Information of population structure and genetic variation obtained from current study would be helpful for planning appropriate strategies for the rehabilitation, conservation and efficient management for these two species. </span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; N. notopterus, C. chitala, Morphological, Meristic, Truss analysis, DNA barcoding, Phylogeny, Conservation 83 108 http://injbir.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-23&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 S. Zafar 1003194753284600493 1003194753284600493 No Department of Zoology, Government College University Faisalabad S. Shahzadi 1003194753284600494 1003194753284600494 No Department of Zoology, Government College University Faisalabad F. Farhat Jabeen 1003194753284600495 1003194753284600495 Yes Department of Zoology, Government College University Faisalabad T. Zafar 1003194753284600496 1003194753284600496 No Department of Zoology, Government College University Faisalabad A. Zafar 1003194753284600497 1003194753284600497 No Department of Computer Science, Government College University Faisalabad A. Sajjad 1003194753284600498 1003194753284600498 No Department of Zoology, Government College University Faisalabad