Molecular phylogenetic relationship of Epinephelus based on sequences of mtDNA Cty b

The mtDNA Cyt b gene was sequenced partially for Variola louti of Serranidae,Epinephelinae and seven endemic species of groupers—Epinephelus awoara,E.brunneus,E.coioides,E.longispinis,E.sexfasciatus,E.spilotoceps and E.tauvina in China.The seven endemic species and other seven foreign species of groupers—E.aeneus,E.caninus,E.drummondhayi,E.haifensis,E.labriformis,E.marginatus and E.multinotatus from the GenBank were combined and analysed as ingroup,while Variola louti was used as outgroup.We compared the 420 bp sequences of Cyt b among the 15 species and constructed two types of molecular phylogenetic trees with maximum parsimony method(MP)and neighbor-joining method(NJ)respectively.The results were as follows:(1)As to the base composition of mtDNA Cyt b sequence(402 bp)of 14 species of Epinephelus,the content of(A+T)was 53.6%,higher than that of(G+C)(46.4%).The transition/transversion ratio was 4.78 with no mutation saturation.(2)The cluster relationships between E.awoara and E.sexfasciatus,E.coioides and E.tauvina,E.longispinis and E.spilotoceps were consistent with phenotypes in taxonomy.(3)In the phylogenetic tree,the species in the Atlantic Ocean were associated closely with those in the Pacific Ocean,which suggested that the Cyt b sequences of Epinephelus were highly conserved.This may be attributed to the coordinate evolution.(4)In wel1-bred mating or heredity management,mating Epinephelus of the same branch should be avoided.It is likely to be an effective way to mate the species of the Atlantic Ocean with those of the Pacific Ocean to improve the inheritance species.

Molecular cloning,expression pattern and phylogenetic analysis of Guanine nucleotide exchange factor Vav2 in lamprey,Lampetra japonica

The Guanine nucleotide exchange factor Vav2（Vav2） is a member of the Vav family that serves as an important regulators for the Rho family of Ras-related GTPases. In the current study, an ortholog（Lj-Vav2） of Vav2 was identified in the lamprey（Lampetra japonica）. To elucidate the phylogenetic relationship of Vav2, the metazoan genome databases were analyzed to mine the ortholog of Vav. It was found that Vav2 genes were only existed in vertebrates and Lj-Vav2 was the original one found in agnathans. The evolutionary dynamics of conserved motifs of Vav2 were explored using combined amino acid sequence as markers, and it is revealed that the Calponin homology（CH） domain, Dbl-homologous（DH） domain, Pleckstrin homology（PH） domain, Cysteine-rich（C1）domains, Src homology 3（SH3） domains and Src homology 2（SH2） domain were conserved throughout the Vav2 gene family in vertebrates during gene evolution. Relative quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the LjVav2 was distributed in the heart, kidney, supraneural myeloid body, liver, gill and lymphocyte-like cells. The LjVav2 was found to be expressed in these tissues, and the level of which was upregulated in lymphocyte-like cells after the animal was stimulated with LPS. These results indicated that the Lj-Vav2 might be involved in the immune response of lymphocyte-like cells in lamprey. Meanwhile, our findings provided a foundation for further investigation of the function of Lj-Vav2 in the primary vertebrate.