Red Sea fishes in the Mediterranean Sea: a preliminary investigation of a biological invasion using DNA barcoding

Abstract

Aim More than 90 marine fish species in the Mediterranean have been determined to be alien species of Red Sea origin to date and therefore it is important to prioritize research into cataloguing their distribution and impacts. The aims of this study were to establish a barcode library for alien Mediterranean fishes of probable Red Sea origin and to initiate analyses of their invasion dynamics.Location Mediterranean Sea.Methods Specimens of exotic fishes were collected directly from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lebanon or obtained from fish markets in Lebanon. Samples were first identified morphologically and later barcoded using the universal cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial marker. Barcodes were compared with GenBank and BOLD database entries and analysed using genetic similarity indexes and neighbour-joining distance trees. ResultsIn total, 156 specimens were collected, corresponding to 43 species. The sequence similarity between these sequences and their closest GenBank and BOLD matches ranged between 100% and 83.5%. The 2% genetic distance criterion, often used as a threshold for assigning positive species identification, was met for 31 of 43 (72%) alien species. Sequences from the remaining species (28%) matched species in the databases that were either in the same genus (congeneric) or in the same family (confamilial). In two cases, namely Plotosus lineatus and Sargocentron rubrum, barcoding revealed a possible species complex (P. lineatus) and multiple unrecognized species existing in the Mediterranean Sea (S. rubrum).Main conclusions Our study presents a preliminary DNA barcode library, useful for identifying correctly alien fish species of Red Sea origin in the Mediterranean Sea. The results show that most species could be identified, yet the data also uncovered some taxa with unresolved taxonomy and possible cases of unrecognized or cryptic species invasions.

Exploring the molecular diversity of Eleotridae (Gobiiformes) using mitochondrial DNA

“…Based on the K2P distance matrix, the COI identification system may help define the limits of nucleotide divergence used to separate lineages (Hebert et al., ). The pairwise genetic distance matrix (Table ) showed considerable divergence between groups, varying from 5.2% to 25.0%, values that are consistent with divergence estimates in studies that have designated new fish species from comparisons with recognized taxa (Amaral et al., ; Baldwin, Cristina, & Lee, ; Bariche et al., ; Connell, Victor, & Randall, ; Guimarães‐Costa et al., ; Melo, Benine, Mariguela, & Oliveira, ; Oliveira et al., ; Tornabene et al., ; Van Tassell, Joyeux, Macieira, & Tornabene, ; Victor, Hanner, Shivji, Hyde, & Caldow, ). When the 2% species threshold for COI sequences (Hebert et al., ) is applied to the data analyzed in the present study, three of the 14 species sampled, Gobiomorus dormitor , Eleotris fusca and Dormitator maculatus , presented evidence of genetic structuring throughout their distribution in the Neotropical and Indo‐Pacific regions, based on nucleotide divergence values of 5.2%–13.1%, as well as reciprocal monophyly between lineages.…”

New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (July 2016)

“…and was subsequently barcoded. Its sequence is deposited in BOLD (ACU2979) and GENBANK (KR861539) (see Bariche et al, 2015). Our record constitutes the second confirmed record of this species from Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea as a whole, 37 years after the first record (see above).…”

DNA barcoding of marine fishes from Saudi Arabian waters of the Gulf

“…In this study, some species were found to be closer to the same species from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Within this context, it is worth noting that many marine fish species recorded in the Mediterranean Sea have been determined to be alien species of Red Sea origin (Bariche et al ., ), suggesting the possibility of high similarity between The Gulf and Red Sea, even though there is not much fish DNA barcoding data from the Red Sea (Isari et al ., ; Trivedi et al ., ). For what nucleotide composition concerns, results are very similar to those found in Australian (Ward et al ., ), Canadian (Hubert et al ., ), Cuban (Lara et al ., ) and Taiwanese (Bingpeng et al ., ) fish species, with the AT content (53.1%) higher than GC content (46.9%), with the predominance of the T (29.6%).…”