Cracking the glass-perchlet code: Integrative taxonomy uncovers high species-level diversity within the glass-perchlet genus Ambassis (Ambassidae) in tropical Asia

IF 2.3 2区生物学 Q2 EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Zoologica Scripta Pub Date : 2023-12-11 DOI:10.1111/zsc.12640

Siti Zafirah Ghazali, Sébastien Lavoué, Norli Fauzani Mohd Abu Hassan Alshari, Danial Hariz Zainal Abidin, Jamsari Amirul Firdaus Jamaluddin, Min Pau Tan, Siti Azizah Mohd Nor

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Glass-perchlets of the genus Ambassis (Teleostei; Ambassidae) form an important component of the brackish and marine coastal fish communities of tropical Asia. However, their species-level diversity is still poorly documented because of the absence of recent taxonomic revisions in this region and the limited availability of specimens for research. In addition, long-standing taxonomic and nomenclatural issues complicate the studies of this genus. Herein, we examine the diversity of Ambassis in Peninsular Malaysia using an integrative taxonomic approach and a large set of recently collected specimens from this region. Our initial morphological observations of 260 specimens revealed the presence of eight species, identified as Ambassis dussumieri, Ambassis interrupta, Ambassis kopsii, Ambassis macracanthus, Ambassis nalua, Ambassis octava, Ambassis urotaenia and Ambassis vachellii. We then sequenced the barcode fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene for 122 of our specimens, representing all eight morpho-species. Automatic species delimitation methods recovered nine Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) because A. interrupta is made of two MOTUs. Morphological re-examination within A. interrupta detected variation at one character, congruent with molecular delimitation. Overall, our integrative approach unveiled rich species-level diversity within the genus Ambassis in Peninsular Malaysia, with the presence of nine species. Further comparisons between our COI dataset and the COI sequences archived in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) from specimens of Ambassis broadly collected in tropical Asian regions, indicated regional-scale hidden diversity and identification conflicts, triggering the need for a complete taxonomic revision of this genus.

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破解玻璃鲈密码：综合分类法揭示了亚洲热带地区玻璃鲈属（Ambassidae）物种的高度多样性

玻璃鲈属（Teleostei; Ambassidae）是亚洲热带咸水和海水沿岸鱼类群落的重要组成部分。然而，由于该地区近期缺乏分类学修订，而且可供研究的标本有限，因此对其物种多样性的记录仍然很少。此外，长期存在的分类和命名问题也使该属的研究复杂化。在本文中，我们使用综合分类方法和最近从该地区采集的大量标本，研究了马来西亚半岛安巴丝的多样性。我们对 260 份标本进行了初步形态学观察，发现了 8 个物种，分别为 Ambassis dussumieri、Ambassis interrupta、Ambassis kopsii、Ambassis macracanthus、Ambassis nalua、Ambassis octava、Ambassis urotaenia 和 Ambassis vachellii。然后，我们对 122 个标本的线粒体细胞色素 c 氧化酶亚单位 I（COI）基因条形码片段进行了测序，这些标本代表了所有 8 个形态种。自动物种划分方法恢复了九个分子操作分类单元（MOTU），因为 A. interrupta 是由两个分子操作分类单元组成的。在 A. interrupta 中，形态学再研究发现了一个特征的变异，与分子定界一致。总之，我们的综合方法揭示了马来西亚半岛 Ambassis 属中丰富的物种多样性，共存在 9 个物种。我们的 COI 数据集与存档于生命条形码数据系统（BOLD）的 COI 序列之间的进一步比较表明，在亚洲热带地区广泛收集的 Ambassis 标本具有区域范围的隐藏多样性和识别冲突，因此有必要对该属进行全面的分类修订。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Zoologica Scripta 生物-动物学

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Zoologica Scripta publishes papers in animal systematics and phylogeny, i.e. studies of evolutionary relationships among taxa, and the origin and evolution of biological diversity. Papers can also deal with ecological interactions and geographic distributions (phylogeography) if the results are placed in a wider phylogenetic/systematic/evolutionary context. Zoologica Scripta encourages papers on the development of methods for all aspects of phylogenetic inference and biological nomenclature/classification. Articles published in Zoologica Scripta must be original and present either theoretical or empirical studies of interest to a broad audience in systematics and phylogeny. Purely taxonomic papers, like species descriptions without being placed in a wider systematic/phylogenetic context, will not be considered.