No genetic deviation between two morphotypes of the snipefishes (Macroramphosidae: Macroramphosus) in Japanese waters

Morphological differences among snipefishes (Macroramphosidae: <i>Macroramphosus</i>) from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans

“…The previous molecular phylogenetic studies (Robalo et al 2009;Noguchi et al 2015) showed no genetic deviation between morphotypes inhabiting single sea areas, namely, Portuguese and Japanese waters, while individuals of these two sea areas were completely deviated from each other. The pres- , distance between the two dorsal fins (g), maximum body depth (h), length before the second dorsal fin spine (i), and length after the second dorsal fin spine (j) to the standard length of Macroramphosus snipefish from the northwestern Pacific including the East China Sea (NP), the southern Pacific (SP), the northern Atlantic (NA), and the southern Atlantic (SA).…”

“…In our previous study (Noguchi et al 2015), based on morphological and molecular analyses we showed that Macroramphosus from Japanese waters should be classified into a single species in spite of large morphological differences between the M. scolopax-type and the M. gracilis-type. Further, comparing nucleotide sequences determined in this study with those of Robalo et al (2009), we had reported that significant genetic deviation, probably at the specific level, exists between snipefishes in Japanese waters (the northwestern Pacific including the East China Sea) and those in the northeastern Atlantic (off the coast of Portugal).…”

“…We used 133 adult individuals of Macroramphosus that we collected in Japanese waters and measured in the previous study (standard length ranging between 7.10-16.68 cm) (Noguchi et al 2015). In addition, we used formalin-fixed adult specimens, which had been deposited at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba (NSMT-P).…”

“…As in a previous study (Noguchi et al 2015), snout length, eye diameter, postorbital head length, head length, postopercular body length, length of the second dorsal fin spine, distance between the two dorsal fins, maximum body depth, length before the second dorsal fin spine, length after the second dorsal fin spine, and standard length of additional specimens were measured using a vernier caliper (0.05 mm accuracy). A non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (nMDS) analysis was performed using the Bray-Curtis similarity index (Clarke & Warwick 2001) based on values of the the first 10 characteristics divided by the standard length.…”

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“…Lack o f DNA barcoding gap among variants suggests that all these specimens indeed belong to single species despite morphological difference. By using mitochondrial and nuclear markers, several studies have proved that morphotypes of certain fishes (for instance species of Macroramphus) were conspecific individuals of single species ( Robalo, Sousa-Santos, Cabral, Castilho, & A lmada, 2009;Noguchi et al, 2015). The study concludes that Setipinna phasa exists as three ecotypes in the type locality of the species.…”