Phylogenetic relationships of Octopus maya revealed by mtDNA sequences
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The phylogenic relationships among the Octopus species have not been fully established. We compared sequences for three mitochondrial genes (16S ribosomal RNA, cytochrome oxydase I, and cytochrome oxydase III) from Octopus maya, an endemic taxon of the Yucatan Peninsula, with homologous sequences from other taxa within the Octopus genus, with the aim of elucidating the phylogenetic relationships of this species. Maximum likelihood trees grouped O. maya with octopuses that inhabit the East Pacific. Considering that the distribution of O. maya is limited to the Yucatan peninsula in the West Atlantic and that the sequences analyzed show equal evolutionary rates across taxa, we propose that the divergence of O. maya possibly started during the formation of the Panama Isthmus, when the Pacific and Atlantic basins were split. The genetic distances that O. maya sequences show within the trees obtained are in the range of congeneric distances of other taxa in this genus so that these sequences are characters that support the inclusion of O. maya within the genus Octopus.
Downloads
Article Details
This is an open access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which allows you to share and adapt the work, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Figures, tables and other elements in the article are included in the article’s CC BY 4.0 license, unless otherwise indicated. The journal title is protected by copyrights and not subject to this license. Full license deed can be viewed here.