Phylogenetic relationships of the silver trumpeter Latris pacifica (Teleostei, Percomorpha, Latridae) based on allozymes and mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences

Variation in mitochondrial DNA sequences and allozymes in four species of trumpeter (family Latridae) from the New Zealand EEZ and the newly described species, silver trumpeter, from the central South Pacific Ocean was used to determine the phylogenetic relationships among this group of fishes. Sequence data for 424 nucleotides of the cytochrome beta mitochondrial gene were obtained for 31 specimens. Three methods of phylogenetic analysis, maximum parsimony, minimum evolution, and maximum likelihood, produced similar topologies for species level relationships: with two pairs of species: Latris pacifica and L. lineata, and Latridopsis ciliaris and L forsteri, plus the more divergent Mendosoma lineatum. There were fixed differences at 9 of 11 allozyme loci among the species; genetic distances were 0.212 and 0.213 between L. pacifica and L. lineata, and between L ciliaris and L. forsteri, respectively. Based on both mitochondrial DNA and allozyme data we suggest that L pacifica is a sister species to L. lineata.