SCIENTOMETRICS ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF MOLECULAR MARKERS IN STUDIES OF THE SCIAENIDAE FAMILY (TELEOSTEI: PERCIFORMES).

Abstract

The Sciaenidae family belongs to the order of the Perciformes with species distributed in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and also in continental inland waters. The phylogenetic and taxonomy relationships of several genera and species are still controversial and morphological and molecular studies have been undertaken to identify and classify correctly the sciaenid species and estimate their phylogenetic position. Mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA markers have been employed in molecular studies. Since concern in monitoring scientific production is on the increase, current analysis assessed quantitatively research work that employed molecular markers in studies on the Sciaenidae family by means of a survey on published papers. The 42 papers on the subject showed that the number of publications increase during the last years even though few species have been studied. Most studies employed mitochondrial markers only and aimed at estimating the phylogenetic relationships. Results show that Sciaenidae phylogeny is still to be resolved. Further in-depth studies on scantily-studies species should be undertaken with molecular data coupled to morphological studies