Genetic relationship of milkfish (Chanos chanos) from Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences

Abstract

The milkfish (Chanos chanos) is an important food fish in Southeast Asia (Sumagaysay, 1998). Aquaculture of milkfish was begun in Indonesia over 500 years ago, followed by Taiwan and the Philippines. In 2007, the global production reached more than 0.5 million tonnes. Major producing countries were the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan (FAO, 2009). Although these studies are important for a sustaining aquaculture, few studies have been conducted thus far that address the molecular phylogenetic relationship of milkfish. This study aims to investigate regional genetic relationships among milkfish from Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan. Mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences became widely accepted in phylogenetic studies of fishes within the past decade (Fraga et al., 2007; Krieger et al., 2008; Ludwig, 2008; Nazia et al., 2010) and were therefore used for our study.