Integration of morphometric, meristic analysis and DNA barcoding in benthodemersal species of Peruvian waters. Autumn 2014 (Part I)

Abstract

In autumn of 2014, during the evaluation cruise of the hake and other demersal population on board the BIC Humboldt, 9 families and 12 species were recorded: Cephalurus cephalus (Gilbert, 1892) “tadpole shark”; Coelorinchus canus (Garman, 1899) “mouse fish”; Physiculus nematopus Gilbert, 1890 “coal of mud”; Merluccius gayi (Guichenot, 1848) “hake”; Cherublemma emmelas (Gilbert, 1890) “black conger”; Pontinus sierra (Gilbert, 1890) “diabolical fish”; Prionotus stephanophrys Lockington, 1881 “false flyer”; Citharichthys platophrys Gilbert, 1891 “plate sole”; Hippoglossina macrops Steindachner, 1876 “bigeye flounder”; Hippoglossina tetrophthalma (Gilbert, 1890) “Fourspot flounder”; Engyophrys sanctilaurentii Jordan and Bollman, 1890 “Speckled-tail flounder” and Monolene maculipinna Garman, 1899 “Pacific deepwater flounder”. The morphometric, meristic and molecular analyzes were performed, the latter being used to generate their respective DNA barcodes. The specimens identified morphologically as H. macrops, C. cephalus, C. emmelas, C. canus and P. sierra could not be corroborated molecularly due to the lack of records in the nucleotide databases. The DNA sequences obtained were incorporated into the BOLD database, being the first records for these species. No differences were found between the samples of M. gayi from Peru with respect to M. gayi reported in Ecuador, nor M. gayi gayi from Chile, so it is important to perform new analyzes based on other markers. On the other hand, some specimens previously identified as Physiculus talarae also showed characteristics of P. rastrelliger and P. nematopus, according to the morphological analysis carried out in the laboratory. The molecular analysis determined that these specimens correspond to P. nematopus. This shows that the analysis of morphological and molecular characters constitutes complementary tools in the investigations, contributing in the validation of the identification, distribution and propagation of the species in the benthodemersal subsystem.