Molecular Phylogenetic Relationships Among Mediterranean
Mugilidae Species
 

Hager Blel¹, Khaled Said¹, Jean-Dominique Durand^2
1Unité de Recherche Génétique: Biodiversité et Valorisation des Bio ressources (UR:09/30) Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Monastir, 5000 Monastir-Tunisie
²Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR 5119 ECOLAG, IRD de Bel Air, BP 1386, CP 18524 Dakar, Sénégal

In order to explore phylogenetic relationships among six Mediterranean species of the Mugilidae family namely, Mugil cephalus, Chelon labrosus, Liza aurata, Liza ramada, Liza saliens and Oedalechilus labeo, polymorphism sequence of mitochondrial (16S rRNA, COI, CytB and 12S rRNA) and nuclear (5S DNA and Rhodopsin) gene were analysed. Phylogenetic trees built are in agreement with previous studies but the overall data set provide the finest picture of phylogenetic relationships among these species. Mugil appear as the most derivative genus among studied genera (Liza, Chelon, Oedalechilus) which is in agreement with morphometric specificity of Mugil. In contrast, our data disagree with a close relationship of Oedalechilus with Chelon. Last, our results using as well the mitochondrial as the nuclear markers corroborate previous studies that question the validity of Chelon labrosus and confirm that this species belong to the Liza genus.