Genetic variation among selected species of plectropomus (family: Serranidae) based on DNA barcoding technique using CO1 nucleotide sequences

DNA barcoding, genetic distances and phylogenetic relations among some Plectropomus species (Family: Serranidae) were evaluated based on Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CoxI) nucleotide sequences. DNA barcoding for all sequences obtained from all studied samples collected from different parts showed a complete similarity between them. Therefore, a consensus sequence was used for all local samples. The phylogenetic relations that reconstructed among evaluated Plectropomus species showed that, this genus was clustered into two main groups. The first group is including two unique clads (P. pessuliferus and P. laevis), while the second group is including P. leopardus and P. maculatus. The highest distance value was calculated between P. pessuliferus and P. maculatus. On the other hand, the lowest distance value was calculated between P. pessuliferus. and P. laevis. Sequence conservation, nucleotide composition, single nucleotide polymorphism and average number of nucleotide differences were estimated in all evaluated fishes and revealed that DNA barcoding was an efficient method for exploring the genetic variations among estimated fish species as well as similarity or variation within species.