title: Epinephelus moara: a valid species of the family Epinephelidae (Pisces: Perciformes).
abstract: This study documents the major external and internal morphological differences between Epinephelus bruneus and Epinephelus moara, and analyses the complete mitogenomes of both species. The partial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (coI) sequence divergence between E. bruneus and E. moara is significantly higher than specimens within the same species (P < 0·05). Analyses of gene flow (Nm = 0·02) and genetic differentiation (ϕst = 0·92995, P > 0·05) reveal reproductive isolation between E. bruneus and E. moara. These results support the hypothesis that E. moara is a valid species. Further molecular comparisons between E. bruneus and E. moara obtained in this study and a specimen identified in GenBank as E. bruneus from South Korea reveal that the latter is identical to E. moara rather than to E. bruneus.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science and Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity and Global Change, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Liu
authors: J-L
authors: JL
authors: Li
authors: S-X
authors: SX
authors: Ding
authors: Z-Q
authors: ZQ
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D010473:Perciformes / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004247:DNA