Comparative Molecular Cytogenetic Analysis of Three Marine Fishes Species of Genus Epinephelus (Family: Serranidae) From Mediterranean Sea

Abstract: The Metaphase chromosomes of three marine fishes species of genus Epinephelus (Epinephelus aeneus, Epinephelus marginatus and Epinephelus costae (Family: Serranidae) and their karyological and molecular genetic relationships have been studied. All samples were collected from Egyptian Mediterranean Sea Coast. All three species have the same diploid chromosome number of 2n=48. Epinephelus aeneus and Epinephelus costae were identical in their karyotypes (all acrocentric), but the karyotype of Epinephelus marginatus was different. Nine of ten RAPD primers, showed polymorphic bands, were used for the construction of the dendrogram and a similarity matrix. A total of 51 bands were obtained; 35 of them were polymorphic. Similarity values among the studied samples ranged from 11% to 35%. High similarity values were obtained between Epinephelus aeneus and Epinephelus costae. (35%) and the low similarity values were obtained between Epinephelus aeneus and Epinephelus marginatus (11%). The cluster analysis clearly differentiated Epinephelus aeneus and Epinephelus costae from Epinephelus marginatus. RAPD analysis confirmed that the three Epinephelus species under study are genetically different from each other and a genetic variation was found between and within the three species tested in this study.