PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PUFFERFISH OF GENUS TAKIFUGU BY RAPD ANALYSIS

AmpLifications with 300 10-base primers under predetermined optimal reaction yielded 2762 reproducible amplified fragments ranging from 200 to 3000 bp. Genetic distances among five species of Takifugu and Lagocephalus spadiceus as outgreup were calculated based on the presence/absence of the amplified fragments. Topological phylogenie trees of the 5 species of Takgfugu and the outgroup were gen-erated by Parsimony and Neighbor-Joining analysis based on RAPD data set. The genetic distance between T. rubripes and T. pseudommus was almost the same as that between individuals within each species, but was much smaller than that among T. rubripes, T. pseudommus and the other species. The molecu-lar data from RAPD analysis convincingly showed that T. rubripes and T. pseudommus should be the same species.

Phylogenetic relationships among pufferfish of genusTakifugu by RAPD analysis

Amplifications with 300 10-base primers under predetermined optimal reaction yielded 2762 reproducible amplified fragments ranging from 200 to 3000 bp. Genetic distances among five species ofTakifugu andLagocephalus spadiceus as outgroup were calculated based on the presence/absence of the amplified fragments. Topological phylogenic trees of the 5 species ofTakifugu and the outgroup were generated by Parsimony and Neighbor-Joining analysis based on RAPD data set. The genetic distance betweenT. rubripes andT. pseudommus was almost the same as that between individuals within each species, but was much smaller than that amongT. rubripes, T. pseudommus and the other species. The molecular data from RAPD analysis convincingly showed thatT. rubripes andT. pseudommus should be the same species. Contribution No. 4099 from the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This research was supported by 863 High Technology Project (No. 819-04-07) from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and a grant (MFG 95/96. S01) from HKUST.