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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
In this paper, the phylogenetic relationships of the marine blenny Salaria pavo and the freshwater S. fluviatilis
and S. economidisi were analyzed using four molecular markers: the mitochondrial 12S rRNA, 16S
rRNA, and the control region and the nuclear first intron of the S7 ribosomal protein. The monophyly of
Salaria is supported, as well as that of S. pavo and that of all the freshwater members of Salaria. Thus, the
present results support a single origin for all freshwater Mediterranean blenniids. Our results reject the
placement of the species of Salaria in the genus Lipophrys as proposed in previous studies. Using a molecular
clock calibrated with trans-Isthmian geminate blenniid species, the split between the ancestor of the
freshwater lineage and the ancestor of S. pavo is tentatively placed in the Middle Miocene (well before the
Messinian). The marine S. pavo displays a very low level of intraspecific sequence divergence consistent
with a Pleistocene bottleneck. S. fluviatilis is a paraphyletic entity with S. economidisi nested within it. A
Moroccan population of S. fluviatilis is more divergent than S. economidisi, both in nuclear and mitochondrial
genes. Fish from Israel together with some Turkish samples represent the second oldest split. It is
argued that these populations may represent cryptic species. Thus, further studies on the taxonomy of
these freshwater blennies are urgently needed.
Description
Keywords
Salaria fluviatilis Salaria pavo Molecular clock 12s rRNA gene 16sRNA gene Mitochondrial control region S7 ribosomal protein gene
Citation
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 52, 424-431