DNA Barcoding and Atlantic reef fishes: The molecular identification of a reef fish community from the Todos os Santos Bay, Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe reef fish community is one of the most explored fish stock by local and medium scale fishing activities as well as by the international ornamental fish trade. Despite these intense commercial activities, several reef species are poorly known. The reef fish community limited knowledge makes difficult the commercial regulation and also the adoption of conservation policies and general law enforcement. The present study deals with the molecular identification of a reef fish community from the Baía de Todos os Santos, Bahia, Brazil in order to construct a reference database for molecular identification of these species. We evaluated the molecular identification of 51 species included in 28 distinct families. The specimens were caught using freediving techniques and tissue samples were obtained from the epaxial musculature. The DNA barcoding methodology was used for the amplification of a 650 bp fragment from the mitochondrial COI gene. Among the 51 obtained COI sequences, 16 of them represent new record for the species in the Brazilian coastal region including two species (Gramma brasiliensis and Scarus trispinosus) without any sequencing data available until now.

Species delimitation by DNA barcoding reveals undescribed diversity in Stelliferinae (Sciaenidae)

“…dentex specimens to three different MOTUs, as confirmed by the haplotype network and the genetic divergence of 4.0% to 9.3% between the lineages. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of cryptic speciation within Odontoscion proposed by Duarte et al [ 12 ], who, using DNA barcoding, identified two groups with a divergence of 12.9% between the Caribbean and Brazilian provinces. Lineages I and II of O .…”

DNA Barcoding of Fish in Mischief Reef—Fish Diversity of a Reef Fish Community From Nansha Islands

“…The mean K2P genetic distances hierarchy increased with increased taxonomic level, consistent with data from coral reef fishes of the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago, Todos os Santos Bay, and marine fish of other areas (Lakra et al, 2011;Hubert et al, 2012;Duarte et al, 2017). Similar results were also found for freshwater fishes (Hubert et al, 2008;Barman et al, 2018).…”

A new species of viviparous brotula genus Pseudogilbia (Ophidiiformes: Dinematichthyidae) from Brazilian reefs, with an updated diagnosis of the genus

“…Because of their cryptic habitats, dinematichthyids are rarely observed or collected with conventional methods (Robertson & Smith-Vaniz, 2008), even in relatively well-sampled areas such as the Todos os Santos Bay and the Abrolhos Bank, in north-eastern Brazil (e.g. Cruz et al, 2015;Duarte et al, 2017;Dutra et al, 2005;Ferreira et al, 2015). Species identification is also hindered by the overall weak informative power of morphometric and meristic data (Møller et al, 2004).…”