TURKISH JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES, cilt.15, sa.1, ss.149-155, 2015 (SCI-Expanded)
The phylogenetic relationship among five shad species (Alosa caspia, A. fallax nilotica, Alosa maeotica, Alosa immaculata, Alosa tanaica) from Turkish marine waters was investigated with mitochondrial DNA polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The six genesegments, NADH 5/6, NADH 3/4cytochrome b, COX, 16 SrRNA and D-Loop, of mtDNA amplified by PCR were digested with seven restriction enzymes, BsurI, AluI, EheI, Hin6I, RsaI, XhoI Bsh1236I, respectively. When all the six genes were combined together for phylogenetic analysis, a total of 45 haplotypes were detected from the five shad species, and the average haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity within species were 0.8809 and 0.0022 respectively. The average nucleotide diversity and nucleotide divergence among species were 0.009248 and 0.007080 respectively. The highest genetic divergence was observed between A. caspia and A. maeotica (0.013727) and the lowest between A. immaculate and A. tanaica (0.003073). Monte Carlo (X-2) pairwise genetic comparison revealed highly significant differences between all species (P<0.001). In the Neighbour-joining tree, there were two main grouping, and in the first group, A. caspia and A. f. nilotica exhibited the closest genetic similarity which was the sister group to A. immaculata. A. tanaicaseems to be the most divergent in this grouping. Another group contained only A. maeotica which showed the highest genetic differentiation among Alosa genus.