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The molecular phylogeny of the order Acipenseriformes revisited
Author(s) -
Krieger J.,
Hett A. K.,
Fuerst P. A.,
Artyukhin E.,
Ludwig A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2008.01088.x
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , acipenser , clade , phylogenetic tree , huso , phylogenetics , maximum parsimony , evolutionary biology , zoology , cytochrome b , mitochondrial dna , molecular phylogenetics , genus , sturgeon , genetics , gene , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
Summary As evolutionary relationships within the order Acipenseriformes are not well understood and some classifications are currently controversial, the study of evolutionary relationships, especially based on genetic data, has received much recent attention. In this reanalysis we present a nearly complete proposed phylogeny of the order, including 25 species, based on the maximum likelihood analysis of combined DNA sequence data (4406 base pairs) from five mitochondrial genes sequenced in our laboratories (cytochrome b , 12S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, tRNA Asp and tRNA Phe ) and three mitochondrial gene regions sequenced by Birstein et al. (2002) (16S rRNA, NADH5 and control region). Examination of the molecular phylogeny using either maximum likelihood, Bayesian analysis, maximum parsimony or neighbor‐joining leads to the following conclusions: (i) the two species of paddlefish do form a clade; (ii) the most basal position within the Acipenseridae remains unresolved, held either by the genus Scaphirhynchus or by the clade containing Acipenser oxyrinchus and A. sturio ; (iii) Huso is not monophyletic, with the two species of Huso found embedded separately within the genus Acipenser ; (iv) A. sinensis and A. dabryanus are confirmed as closely related; (v) the previously described Atlantic‐Pacific subdivision within the Acipenser/Huso complex is supported and (vi) the unexpected placement of Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni within Acipenser is supported by this analysis. These results offer further evidence that some revision of acipenseriform classification may be needed to accurately inform conservation efforts and that future phylogenetic studies of this group should focus on the analysis of nuclear genes.