Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences that included the non-coding D-Ioop region, the tRNAPhe gene, and a part of the 12S rRNA gene from 60 individuals belonging to 5 Sparinae species were sequenced to document the mtDNA sequence variations as well as to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of these species. The intraspecific and interspecific comparisons of aligned sequences demonstrate that the tRNAPhe gene and the 12S rRNA gene are highly conserved. The left and right domains of the D-Ioop region contain a higher A content and a lower G content, and are highly variable in both sequences and lengths. The central domain of the D-Ioop region contains a lower A content and a higher G content, and is more conserved than the other two domains. The conserved sequence elements TAS, CSB-2, and CSB-3, which have been reported previously from other vertebrates, are maintained in Sparinid fishes. The intraspecific pairwise sequence distances using the Tamura-Nei model ranged between 0.0021-0.0130 in Acanthopagrus australis, 0.0000-0.0115 in A. berda, 0.0014-0.0209 in A. latus, 0.0014-0.0093 in A. schlegeli, and 0.0000-0.0056 in Sparus sarba. The interspecific pairwise sequence distances using the Tamura-Nei model, ranged from 0.1498 to 0.1914 between species of Acanthopagrus, and from 0.2386 to 0.2708 between species of the genera Acanthopagrus and Sparus. The phylogenetic tree constructed by UPGMA based on the mtDNA sequence data shows the same topology as that based on allozyme eiectrophoresis data, but it is different from that based on morphometric data.
mtDNA, Sequence variation, Interspecific relationships, Sparinae
