Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic review of the family Pomacentridae from Korea

Damselfishes (Perciformes, Pomacentridae) inhabit a wide variety of temperate, subtropical and tropical waters, with 31 genera and 427 species in the world. Among them, 8 genera and 21 species have been reported in Korea. Many studies have been conducted on the taxonomy of damselfishes, but the classification on their subfamilies is confusing. Therefore, in this study, molecular phylogeny of 8 genera and 17 species of the family Pomacentridae are analyzed based on mtDNA 16S rRNA 473bp and nDNA RAG1 812bp sequences. Also, the external morphological traits of 64 specimens collected from Korea investigated to determine if there are diagnostic features distinguishing subfamilies or genera. Molecular phylogenetic trees (ML, and BI) showed that four groups (Chrominae, Glyphisodontinae, Pomacentrinae, and Microspathodontinae) were largely formed, and monophyletic relationship was observed four groups. Each subfamily is divided by the number of spiniform procurrent caudal rays, the shape and rows of the teeth, and the margin of suborbital and preopercle. Each genus is divided by the number of dorsal fin spines and anal fin soft rays, the shape and rows of the teeth, and body coloration. Through an extensive examination of pomacentrids specimens loaned from museum or universities, it is believed that Chromis analis, Neopomacentrus violascens and Pomacentrus chrysurus are not distributed in Korea in spite of their previous records.