Abstract
In this study, the validity, distribution and structure of three turbot species, Scophthalmus
 maeoticus, S. maximus, S. rhombus, belong to Scophthalmidae family in Turkish, Bulgarian and
 Russian coastal waters were determined with mtDNA sequencing of Cytochrome c oxidase subunit
 III (COIII). The sequencing of the COIII region revealed 8 bp variable and 6 bp parsimony
 informative sites between all turbot species. The overall genetic and haplotype diversities among
 all turbot species were found to be 0.004109 and 0.7655, respectively. Genetic distance analysis
 showed that the highest nucleotide differences was observed between S. maximus and S. rhombus
 species with a value of 0.09620 and, the lowest value (0.02482) was observed between S. maximus
 and S. maeoticus species. Neighbor Joining and Maximum Parsimony phylogenetic approaches
 resulted in the similar tree topologies that S. maximus and S. maeoticus were found as sister group,
 whereas S. rhombus was more divergent from this group. The mtDNA COIII gene is a useful
 genetic marker for species specific identification of the genus Scophthalmus due to its inter-specific
 heterogeneity producing a species-specific pattern. In morphological analyses, S. rhombus was
 most differentiated from S. maximus and S. maeoticus. The genetic data was supported by the
 detected morphometric variations among the turbot species.
Highlights
The Scophthalmidae are a family of sinistral flatfish found in the North Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Marmara Sea are important species in the world due to their economic and ecological value (Chanet, 2003)
The phylogenetic relationships of three commercially important turbot species belongs to Scophthalmidae family (Scophthalmus maximus, S. maeoticus and S. rhombus) from Turkish and Bulgarian coasts were investigated based on mtDNA c oxidase subunit III (COIII) gene sequencing data in the present study
Karan & Turan (2019) reported significant genetic divergence (FST, 0.001593) based on COIII region of mitochondrial DNA between populations of S. maeoticus collected from the Black Sea and Marmara Sea
Summary
The Scophthalmidae are a family of sinistral flatfish found in the North Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Marmara Sea are important species in the world due to their economic and ecological value (Chanet, 2003). Fishes of this family are known commonly as turbots which may exceed 1 m of length and 20 kg of weight (Froese & Pauly, 2018). Scophthalmid fishes are benthic marine species, living on sandy and muddy bottoms, and younger individuals tend to live in shallower areas. The argument on the existence of the number of the species in these waters are still ongoing issue and need clarification
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