DNA barcoding and morphological taxonomy: identification of lanternfish (Myctophidae) larvae in the Gulf of Mexico

Paola Gabriela Batta-Lona, Clara E. Galindo-Sánchez, Maria Clara Arteaga, Javier Robles-Flores, Sylvia Patricia Aldeheid Jiménez-Rosenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Accurate identification of fish larval stages is complicated and time-consuming due to the lack of diagnostic morphological characters, especially during early developmental stages. The distribution of lanternfish (Myctophidae) has been described based on the morphological identification of adult stages. Larvae of only a few species of Myctophidae have been described, and the description is not always precise. In this study, larvae were collected and morphologically identified as Diaphus mollis, Hygophum hygomii, H. reinhardtii, H. taaningi, Myctophum obtusirostre and M. selenops. The DNA barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) was determined for all larvae. The COI sequences matched reference barcodes available in GenBank for 14 of the identified larvae. The remaining COI sequences matched reference barcodes for different species of Myctophidae including Centrobranchus nigroocellatus, Diogenichthys atlanticus and Lepidophanes guentheri. This effort demonstrated the importance of integrated morphological and molecular analysis of species diversity and distribution of the Myctophidae in the Gulf of México.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)375-383
Number of pages9
JournalMitochondrial DNA Part A: DNA Mapping, Sequencing, and Analysis
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Cytochrome oxidase I
  • DNA barcoding
  • Gulf of Mexico
  • Myctophidae
  • larval fishes

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