DNA barcoding of marine fish species from Rongcheng Bay, China

Lijuan Wang; Zhihao Wu; Mengxia Liu; Wei Liu; Wenxi Zhao; Hongjun Liu; Feng You

doi:10.7717/peerj.5013

DNA barcoding of marine fish species from Rongcheng Bay, China

PeerJ. 2018 Jun 25:6:e5013. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5013. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Lijuan Wang^{1

2

3}, Zhihao Wu^{1

2

3}, Mengxia Liu⁴, Wei Liu⁴, Wenxi Zhao⁴, Hongjun Liu⁴, Feng You^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
² Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
³ Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
⁴ Marine Biology Institute of Shandong Province, Qingdao, Shandong, China.

Abstract

Rongcheng Bay is a coastal bay of the Northern Yellow Sea, China. To investigate and monitor the fish resources in Rongcheng Bay, 187 specimens from 41 different species belonging to 28 families in nine orders were DNA-barcoded using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI). Most of the fish species could be discriminated using this COI sequence with the exception of Cynoglossus joyneri and Cynoglossus lighti. The average GC% content of the 41 fish species was 47.3%. The average Kimura 2-parameter genetic distances within the species, genera, families, and orders were 0.21%, 5.28%, 21.30%, and 23.63%, respectively. Our results confirmed that the use of combined morphological and DNA barcoding identification methods facilitated fish species identification in Rongcheng Bay, and also established a reliable DNA barcode reference library for these fish. DNA barcodes will contribute to future efforts to achieve better monitoring, conservation, and management of fisheries in this area.

Keywords: Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI); DNA barcoding; Fish identification; Rongcheng Bay.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the National Special Research Fund for the Non-Profit Marine Sector (No. 201305043 and 200805069), the Special Program for Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2014FY110500), the Major agricultural application technology and innovation projects of Shandong Province (2017–2020), and the National Infrastructure of Fishery Germplasm Resources (No. 2017DKA30470). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.