Molecular Taxonomy Of Clownfishes In Indian Waters

Barcoding of 13 clownfish species of the Indian Ocean was carried out to infer the phylogenetic relationships among them by analyzing cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) and cytochrome b (cyt b) mitochondrial gene sequences. The book also scrutinized species boundaries between four closely related species of the subgenus Phalerebus (Amphiprion akallopisos, A. perideraion, A. sandaracinos and A. nigripes), three species of the subgenus Amphiprion (A. frenatus, A. melanopus and A. ephippium) and two species of the subgenus Paramphiprion (A. sebae and A. polymnus). In addition, phylogeographic structure of A. clarkii was calculated in terms of geographic isolation by phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial control region (CR) and cyt b sequences. The genetic distances between the subgenus Phalerebus species were 0.165-0.233 in CR and 0.021-0.065 in cyt b; and the genetic distance between the subgenus Amphiprion species was 0.122-0.171 in CR and 0.038-2.308 in cyt b. Species of the subgenus Paramphiprion had a genetic distance of 0.016 in CR and 2.185 in cyt b. A. clarkii collected from four regions have genetic distance of 0.019-0.06 (CR) and 0-0.025 (cyt b).