Mar'ie, Z., Welson, M. (2025). Genetic Diversity in Mitochondrial Control Region Among Some Parrot Fish Species from Egyptian Red Sea. Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, 29(4), 5069-5082. doi: 10.21608/ejabf.2025.446904
Zeinab Mar'ie; Mary Welson. "Genetic Diversity in Mitochondrial Control Region Among Some Parrot Fish Species from Egyptian Red Sea". Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, 29, 4, 2025, 5069-5082. doi: 10.21608/ejabf.2025.446904
Mar'ie, Z., Welson, M. (2025). 'Genetic Diversity in Mitochondrial Control Region Among Some Parrot Fish Species from Egyptian Red Sea', Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, 29(4), pp. 5069-5082. doi: 10.21608/ejabf.2025.446904
Mar'ie, Z., Welson, M. Genetic Diversity in Mitochondrial Control Region Among Some Parrot Fish Species from Egyptian Red Sea. Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, 2025; 29(4): 5069-5082. doi: 10.21608/ejabf.2025.446904
Genetic Diversity in Mitochondrial Control Region Among Some Parrot Fish Species from Egyptian Red Sea
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Control Region (CR) gene, also known as the D-loop, proved effective in distinguishing five parrotfish species: Hipposcarus harid, Chlorurus sordidus, Scarus ferrugineus, Scarus psittacus, and Scarus fuscopurpureus. The Red Sea parrotfish have been relatively understudied due to the difficulties associated with morphological identification, making genetic markers a reliable and efficient alternative for species identification. In this study, DNA sequence lengths ranged from 806 bp in H. harid to 1,050 bp in S. fuscopurpureus. The sequences were deposited in GenBank/NCBI under accession numbers (PV166662.1–PV166666.1). The average nucleotide composition across all species was A= 30.90%, T= 30.37%, C= 24.71%, and G= 14.03%, with an average A+T content of 61.27%, exceeding the C+G content. Pairwise genetic distances among the studied parrotfish species ranged from 0.0060 between S. psittacus and S. fuscopurpureus to 0.891 between H. harid and S. ferrugineus. These relationships were further supported by phylogenetic analysis using both Minimum Evolution (ME) and Neighbor-Joining (NJ) methods, which confirmed the distinct clustering of the species.