Barcoding Antarctic Fishes: Species Discrimination and Contribution to Elucidate Ontogenetic Changes in Nototheniidae

MABRAGAÑA E.; DELPIANI, S. M.; ROSSO, J.J.; GONZÁLEZ CASTRO, M.; DELI ANTONI, M. Y.; HANNER, R.; DÍAZ DE ASTARLOA, J. M.

DNA Barcoding in Marine Perspectives Assessment and Conservation of Biodiversity

Springer

Año: 2016; p. 213 - 242

Fish species richness in the Southern Ocean accounts for approximately2 % of the world?s ocean species, with more than 370 species registered and severalawaiting for formal description. Here we explore on the use of DNA barcoding todiscriminate fishes from Antarctic Peninsula by compiling our results and placingthem into a comparative framework with other previous studies to provide acomprehensive review of available barcodes for Antarctic fishes. A total of 275specimens, belonging to 36 different putative species were barcoded. Nearly allspecies exhibit unique barcodes or clusters of closely related haplotypes, and onlyfour species lacked genetic resolution using Barcode Index Numbers (BINs). Thus,*90 % of the species barcoded in this study could be identified at species levelwith accuracy using BINs. However the use of nucleotic diagnostic characterallowed us to discriminate the remaining species. Compiling our results with previousstudies, about 80 species inhabiting the Antarctic Peninsula were alreadybarcoded, representing approximately 60 % of the species occurring in the area.Finally, we highlighted ontogenetic morphological traits observed in someNotothenidae, which may lead to misidentification of juveniles. DNA Barcodingwas a cornerstone element for obtaining a reliable identification of these specimens.These results are crucial for management and conservation purposes since anaccurate species-level resolution of juveniles is necessary to determine nurseryareas and to clarify species distributions.