Phylogeny of members of the rockfish (Sebastes) subgenus Pteropodus and their relatives

The Sebastes Cuvier, 1829 subgenus Pteropodus Eigenmann and Beeson, 1893 includes six species from the northeastern Pacific Ocean (NEP) and four species from the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWP). Several NEP species assigned to other subgenera are similar to NEP Pteropodus species. Restriction site variation in the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 and 4 genes and the 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes were used to evaluate their relationships. Phylogenetic reconstruction showed that six NEP species of Pteropodus formed a monophyletic group that also included three NEP species currently assigned to other subgenera: Sebastes atrovirens (Jordan and Gilbert, 1880) (subgenus Mebarus Matsubara, 1943) and Sebastes auriculatus Girard, 1854 and Sebastes dalli (Eigenmann and Beeson, 1894) (both subgenus Auctospina (Eigenmann and Beeson, 1894)). The small average nucleotide divergence (0.0124 per nucleotide) observed among members of this group of species was similar to that observed among species of the monophyletic subgenus Sebastomus Gill, 1864 (0.0089 per nucleotide). The NWP species of Pteropodus did not cluster with their NEP consubgeners but, generally, were similar to other NWP species. We recommend that S. atrovirens, S. auriculatus, and S. dalli be included in subgenus Pteropodus with the other NEP species and that the NWP species of Pteropodus be removed from the subgenus. Our results indicate that the morphological characteristics used to distinguish species often may not be useful for phylogenetic analysis.