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Epinephelus tankahkeei, a new species of grouper (Teleostei, Perciformes, Epinephelidae) from the South China Sea.

ABSTRACT: A new species of grouper, Epinephelus tankahkeei sp. nov. is described from the South China Sea based on examination of morphological and molecular characteristics. This new species has been treated as, and is similar to, its congener E. chlorostigma. Epinephelus tankahkeei sp. nov. can be distinguished from E. chlorostigma by the following combination of characters: a convex anal fin; closer dark spots on the body; a lack of dark spots on the abdomen, cheek, and pectoral fin; the absence of a clear posterior white margin on the caudal fin. Molecular analyses of the mitochondrial COI sequence variation, genetic distances, and a phylogeny, all highly support E. tankahkeei sp. nov. as a distinct species. A key to E. tankahkeei sp. nov. and its most closely related species is provided.

SUBMITTER: Wu H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7248128 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Groupers of the family Epinephelidae are a diverse and economically valuable group of reef fishes. To investigate the evolution of their mitochondrial genomes we characterized and compared these genomes among 22 species, 17 newly sequenced. Among these fishes we identified three distinct genome organizations, two of them never previously reported in vertebrates. In 19 of these species, mitochondrial genomes followed the typical vertebrate canonical organization with 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs, two rRNAs, and a non-coding control region. Differing from this, members of genus Variola have an extra tRNA-Ile between tRNA-Val and 16S rRNA. Evidence suggests that this evolved from tRNA-Val via a duplication event due to slipped strand mispairing during replication. Additionally, Cephalopholisargus has an extra tRNA-Asp in the midst of the control region, likely resulting from long-range duplication of the canonical tRNA-Asp through illicit priming of mitochondrial replication by tRNAs. Along with their gene contents, we characterized the regulatory elements of these mitochondrial genomes' control regions, including putative termination-associated sequences and conserved sequence blocks. Looking at the mitochondrial genomic constituents, rRNA and tRNA are the most conserved, followed by protein-coding genes, and non-coding regions are the most divergent. Divergence rates vary among the protein-coding genes, and the three cytochrome oxidase subunits (COI, II, III) are the most conserved, while NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) and the ATP synthase subunit 8 (ATP8) are the most divergent. We then tested the phylogenetic utility of this new mt genome data using 12 protein-coding genes of 48 species from the suborder Percoidei. From this, we provide further support for the elevation of the subfamily Epinephelinae to family Epinephelidae, the resurrection of the genus Hyporthodus, and the combination of the monotypic genera Anyperodon and Cromileptes to genus Epinephelus, and Aethaloperca to genus Cephalopholis.

Project description:Morphological differences, including growth-related changes, were examined in three morphologically similar East Asian sea bass species, Lateolabraxjaponicus, L.maculatus and L.latus. In many cases, body measurements indicated specific patterns of growth-related proportional changes. Lateolabraxlatus differed from the other two species in having greater body depth, caudal peduncle depth, caudal peduncle anterior depth, snout length, and upper and lower jaw length proportions. In particular, scatter plots for caudal peduncle anterior depth relative to standard length (SL) in that species indicated complete separation from those of the other two species, being a new key character for identification. Comparisons of L.japonicus and L.maculatus revealed considerable proportional differences in many length-measured characters, including fin lengths (first and second dorsal, caudal and pelvic), snout length, post-orbital preopercular width (POPW) and post-orbital length. In particular, snout length (SNL) and POPW proportions of the former were greater and smaller for specimens >200 and ? 200 mm SL, respectively. Because the scatter plots of these proportions for the two species did not overlap each other in either size range, identification of the species was possible using a combination of the two characters. In addition, scatter plots of the POPW / SNL proportion (%) of L.japonicus and L.maculatus were almost completely separated throughout the entire size range examined (border level 90%), a further aid to identification. The numbers of pored lateral line scales and scales above the lateral line tended to increase and decrease with growth, respectively, in L.japonicus, whereas scales below the lateral line and gill raker numbers tended to increase with growth in L.maculatus. Because the ranges of these meristic characters may therefore vary with specimen size, they are unsuitable for use as key characters. Accordingly, a new key is proposed for the genus Lateolabrax.

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Epinephelus tankahkeei, a new species of grouper (Teleostei, Perciformes, Epinephelidae) from the South China Sea.

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