Phylogeny of Salmonidae Family Inffered from D-loop Mitochondrial Marker

Abstract

Salmonids are a heterogeneous group of fish classified in one family – Salmonidae. These species are natives of the northern hemisphere, but currently have been introduced in many countries all over the world for sport fishing and aquaculture. Despite the considerable importance of salmonids, their evolutive history is still a controversial issue. The aim of the current study is to infer the phylogeny within the Salmonidae family using as phylogenetic marker the D-loop region. For this purpose, an PCR amplification of D-loop region, followed by direct sequencing and phylogenetic analysis have been performed in four salmonids species from Romanian fauna - Salmo trutta fario, Salvelinus fontinalis, Thymallus thymallus and Oncorhynchus mykiss. For a more accurate phylogenetic classification of these species within Salmonidae family the analysis included similar sequences from GenBank belonging to 17 salmonid species and an osmerid species used as outgroup. The the phylogenetic trees illustrating the evolutive relationships within Salmonidae were constructed by using Neighbor Joining and Maximum Parsimony methodologies implemented in MEGA5.The phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial control region as marker has allowed an overview about the positions occupied by Romanian salmonids within the Salmonidae family.

Keywords

• d-loop
• mitochondrial
• molecular phylogeny
• salmonidae