Abstract
Epinephelus genetic resources in the Red Sea are facing a group of threats. Up to date, the true phylogenetic relationships among species within the Serranidae fishes are under debate. The ATPase6/8 sequence variations were analyzed in some Red Sea Epinephelus species (E.chlorostigma, E.tauvina and E. radiatus) compared with other Serranidae fishes to obtain information relative to the phylogenetic relations of the fish mt-DNA. The evolutionary analysis results were reflected by the Maximum Likelihood method.
In addition, the DNA polymorphism among estimated fishes was evaluated. The average genetic distance values within Epinephelus, Plectropomus, Cephalopholis, Hypoplectrus, Rypticus and Serranus were 0.176, 0.174, 0.17, 0.007, 0.047 and 0.331 respectively. The ATPase6/8 could be efficient as a molecular identification system in fish barcoding and evolutionary studies.