The objective of the present study is to explore the feasibility of using the first internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1) of ribosomal DNA as a molecular marker for studying the interspecific and intraspecific genetic variations among crustaceans. We designed primers that could amplify ITS-1 from a majority of taxonomic groups of crustaceans. The gene was found to exhibit a high degree of length polymorphism among different groups, ranging from 182 bp in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite to approximately 820 bp in the spiny lobster Panulirus japonicus. With respect to differences between congeneric species, it was found that the ITS-1 sequences of 3 mitten crabs, Eriocheir sinensis, Eriocheir leptognathus, and Eriocheir formosa, exhibit 5.4% to 16.3% nucleotide divergence, suggesting that ITS-1 is informative for phylogenetic analysis at the species level. Yet there are extensive (0.9%-2.3%) variations within individual E. formosa, so that phylogenetic analyses could be obscured. ITS-1 was found to vary between 2 geographical populations of the shrimp Penaeus japonicus. The variations involved substitutions as well as insertions/deletions between shrimp from Australia and South China Sea. These results show that ITS-1 is highly divergent among different crustaceans and could be an appropriate marker for molecular systematic studies at the species and population levels, although the presence of intragenomic variation needs to be taken into consideration.
A wreckfish, Stereolepis doederleini Lindberg et Krasyukova, 1969, inhabits typical cold or temperate waters and was previously known from Great Bay (Sea of Japan), Korea, south to Kyuhu-Palau Ridge of Japan. In the present report, a specimen of this fish was collected from southeastern Taiwan representing the southernmost distribution of the cold-water genus Stereolepis in the Northern Hemisphere, with a southward extension into the tropical region. It is also the first record of a member of the family Polyprionidae from Taiwan. Here we document the species found in Taiwan, with a detailed description of the specimen.
Twenty-eight species of the genus Scorpaenopsis (Scorpaenidae) have been recognized as valid in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, and 11 species of which having been recorded from Taiwan. Scorpaenopsis orientalis Randall et Eschmeyer, 2002 was originally described on the basis of type specimens collected from Miyazaki, and the Ogasawara Islands in Japan, and subsequently reported from Iou-jima Island. A single specimen (189.0 mm standard length) of Scorpaenopsis orientalis was collected from southern Taiwan in 2018. The morphology and fresh coloration of the collected specimen are herein described. The majority of the morphological characters of the specimen closely matched the diagnostic features of Scorpaenopsis orientalis given by the previous authors. The specimen from southwestern Taiwan is identified as Scorpaenopsis orientalis. The presently reported specimen represents the southernmost record for the species as well as the first record for Taiwan. This study suggests that S. orientalis may widely distributed in East Asian warm waters.
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