Phylogenetic analysis of six species of Pacific abalone (Haliotidae) based on DNA sequences of 16s rRNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I mitochondrial genes

Six species of abalones (Haliotidae) are found on the Korean coasts. Identification and characterization of these abalones are usually based on morphologic characters. In this research we compared the partial sequences of the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I genes to identify species using molecular data and to determine their phylogenetic relationships. Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the 6 species fell into 2 distinct groups which were genetically distant from each other and exhibited little internal phylogenetic resolution. One group included Haliotis discus hannai, H. discus discus, H. madaka, and H. gigantea, while the other group contained H. diversicolor supertexta and H. diversicolor diversicolor. The 16S rRNA sequences were relatively more conserved than to the COI sequences, but both gene sequences provided sufficient phylogenetic information to distinguish among the 6 species of Pacific abalone, and thus could be valuable molecular characters for species identification.