Barcoding, phylogeography and species boundaries in clownfishes of the Indian Ocean

Abstract

In this study, 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

Systematics of Damselfishes

“…The anemonefish relationships reported herein share some similarities with aspects of earlier works (e.g., Santini and Polacco, 2006;Litsios et al, 2012aO'Donnell, 2014;Dhaneesh et al, 2015;Rolland et al, 2018;Thongtam na Ayudhaya et al, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2020). A monophyletic group (100% bootstrap) composed of the two clownfishes (A. ocellaris and A. percula) and Premnas is sister to all other amphiprionins.…”

“…Phalerebus is not monophyletic either, with A. nigripes recovered apart from the skunk anemonefishes (A. akallopisos, A. pacificus, A. perideraion, A. sandaracinos), which do form a clade (100% bootstrap). A monophyletic Phalerebus without A. nigripes is also seen in many other studies (e.g., Santini and Polacco, 2006;Steinke et al, 2009;Cowman and Bellwood, 2011;Litsios et al, 2012aO'Donnell, 2014;Dhaneesh et al, 2015;DiBattista et al, 2016;Mirande, 2016;Thongtam na Ayudhaya et al, 2017;Gaboriau et al, 2018;Rolland et al, 2018;Delrieu-Trottin et al, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2020). These four species share similarities in color pattern (dorsal white stripe), body shape (slender body where body depth 2.1 in SL; rounded caudal fin), and preference for host species of the genus Heteractis (Allen, 1972(Allen, , 1991Fautin and Allen, 1997;Allen et al, 2010a).…”

“…Allen (1975bAllen ( , 1980Allen ( , 1991 further subdivided the subgenus Amphiprion into an ephippium-complex (A. ephippium, A. frenatus, A. mccullochi, A. melanopus, A. rubrocinctus) and a clarkii-complex (remaining species of the subgenus). Our study and many others (Koh et al, 2006;Santini and Polacco, 2006;Cooper et al, 2009;Cowman and Bellwood, 2011;Litsios et al, 2012aLitsios et al, , 2012bFrédérich et al, 2013;Rabosky et al, 2013Rabosky et al, , 2018O'Donnell, 2014;Dhaneesh et al, 2015;Li et al, 2015;DiBattista et al, 2016;Mirande, 2016;Thongtam na Ayudhaya et al, 2017Gaboriau et al, 2018;Rolland et al, 2018;Delrieu-Trottin et al, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2020) have provided ample evidence for the monophyly of Actinicola, which encompasses the two clownfish species, A. ocellaris and A. percula. As a subgenus of Amphiprion, Premnas is sister to Actinicola.…”

“…However, early molecular studies (Tang, 2001;Quenouille et al, 2004;Santini and Polacco, 2006) resolved the monotypic Premnas within Amphiprion, prompting some (e.g., Quenouille et al, 2004;Nelson, 2006;Santini and Polacco, 2006) to return Premnas to the synonymy of Amphiprion. Although some phylogenies have resolved Premnas as the sister group to Amphiprion (e.g., Mirande, 2016;Thongtam na Ayudhaya et al, 2017), a multitude of other studies (Cooper et al, 2009;Cowman and Bellwood, 2011;Litsios et al, 2012aLitsios et al, , 2012bFrédérich et al, 2013;Rabosky et al, 2013Rabosky et al, , 2018Lobato et al, 2014;Dhaneesh et al, 2015;Li et al, 2015;DiBattista et al, 2016;Gaboriau et al, 2018;Rolland et al, 2018;Delrieu-Trottin et al, 2019;Marcionetti et al, 2019;Thong-tam na Ayudhaya et al, 2019) have recovered Premnas biaculeatus within Amphiprion, as the sister group of the clownfishes (A. ocellaris þ A. percula). Nonetheless, workers have continued to recognize Premnas as a distinct genus despite its phylogenetic position.…”

“…Other species with one or fewer bars are also found outside of this clade (e.g., A. nigripes, A. omanensis, and A. perideraion). The subgeneric names have seen sporadic use (e.g., Elliott et al, 1999;Tang, 2001;Santini and Polacco, 2006;Steinke et al, 2009;Dhaneesh et al, 2015;Li et al, 2015;Hu et al, 2016;Nguyen et al, 2020), and any future recognition would require revision of their limits.…”