Barcoding fishes from the Argentine Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent Islands

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

Kunming

Congreso; Fifth International Barcode of Life World Conference; 2013

The Antarctic fish fauna has a remarkably high level of endemism (c.a 95% of around 320 of the species recorded are endemic). Although several taxonomic studies have been carried out on Antarctic fishes, the number of species is probably underestimated as some taxa and regions have not been deeply explored. In addition, recent molecular studies showed incomplete species discrimination within some representatives of Notothenidae, Artedidraconidae and Liparidae. As part of a global project conducted by CONICET on the systematics and biology of Antarctic organisms, DNA barcodes of fish species around Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent Islands were obtained and concordance with traditional morphological identification was explored. A total of 228 specimens, belonging to 28 different putative species from 7 families, were obtained from research cruises conducted by the R/V Puerto Deseado (Argentina) during summers 2011/12. Barcode sequences were subjected to distance based and spectral clustering (BIN) analyses, which revealed that nearly all species exhibit unique barcodes or clusters of closely related haplotypes. Interspecific divergence (D) was relatively high except in some species within Artedidraconidae, Liparidae, Channichthidae and Zoarcidae (D