Abstract

Background:
Grouper fishes have a diverse variety of shapes and colors, making it difficult to accurately perform morphological identification. In addition, certain unique grouper species may be included in the same species description due to morphological similarities.

Aim:
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the evolutionary relationships between various species of the family Epinephelinae using the large mitochondrial rRNA gene.

Methods:
Four Epinephelinae species (Cephalopholis argus, Epinephelus summana, Epinephelus chlorostigma, and Epinephelus latifasciatus) were gathered from the Red Sea and identified (Randall, 1982).

Results:
The accession numbers were obtained by displaying the 16S rRNA sequences in GenBank/NCBI (PQ661169.1 - PQ661172.1). The average frequencies of adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G) were 28,93, 23.66, 23.84, and 23.57%, respectively. Compared with C + G, the average proportion for A + T was more significant.

Conclusion:
Epinephelus summana and Epinephelus latifasciatus are closely linked, as evidenced by their low genetic distance

Key words: 16S rRNA gene; Cephalopholis; Epinephelus; Grouper.