A test of the utility of DNA barcoding in the radiation of the freshwater stingray genus Potamotrygon (Potamotrygonidae, Myliobatiformes)

Genetics and Molecular Biology

Daniel Toffoli²  Tomas Hrbek²  Maria Lúcia Góes De Araújo¹  Maurício Pinto De Almeida¹  Patricia Charvet-almeida¹  Izeni Pires Farias² 

[1] ,Universidade Federal do Amazonas Departamento de Ciências Biológicas Laboratório de Evolução e Genética AnimalManaus AM ,Brazil

关键词: Potamotrygon;    barcoding;    radiation;    phylogenetics;    COI;    mtDNA;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1415-47572008000200028

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

DNA barcoding is a recently proposed global standard in taxonomy based on DNA sequences. The two main goals of DNA barcoding methodology are assignment of specimens to a species and discovery of new species. There are two main underlying assumptions: i) reciprocal monophyly of species, and ii) intraspecific divergence is always less than interspecific divergence. Here we present a phylogenetic analysis of the family Potamotrygonidae based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene, sampling 10 out of the 18 to 20 valid species including two non-described species. Potamotrygonidae systematics is still not fully resolved with several still-to-be-described species while some other species are difficult to delimit due to overlap in morphological characters and because of sharing a complex color patterns. Our results suggest that the family passed through a process of rapid speciation and that the species Potamotrygon motoro, P. scobina, and P. orbignyi share haplotypes extensively. Our results suggest that systems of identification of specimens based on DNA sequences, together with morphological and/or ecological characters, can aid taxonomic studies, but delimitation of new species based on threshold values of genetic distances are overly simplistic and misleading.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
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