Application of Variability in its Sequences for Studying Biodiversity of Black Sea Clupeid Fishes (Pisces: Clupeidae)

According to many authors, in Black sea Clupeidae family is represented by 9 species. However, this concept is not commonly accepted. For instance some molecular data demonstrated that the differences between A. caspia and A. immaculata are less than 0.8%, which could means that they were very recently split into two different species and still may have hybridization. The aim of this study was to assess applicability of ITS1 markers for distinguishing among Black sea Clupeidae species and to study their phylogenic relations. For this purpose ITS1 regions were isolated from four common representatives of the family in Bulgarian coastal areas. The representatives of A. caspia and A. irnmaculata formed one joint cluster but within it both species were clearly separated. The samples of S. sprattus and S. pilchardus formed clearly distinct clusters. Several SNPs were found in samples from genera Sprattus and Alosa suitable for population genetics investigations. No SNPs were found in samples of genus Sardina. The obtained results demonstrated suitability of ITS1 sequences for studying biodiversity and phylogenic relations of Clupeidae species in Black sea.