Samy Yehya El-Zaeem is a Professor of Fish Breeding and Production. He is the Head of Animal and Fish Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba-Bacha), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
Abstract
Variation in phenotype based on morphometric and landmark based on morphometric character indices and meristic counts of different population of striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), from different environments; Alexandria, Red sea, Senegal and China were analyzed phylogenetically to study and compare the amount of differences in phenotypes. The results revealed that there were significant differences (P≤0.05) in most of morphometric and landmark based on morphometric character indices, while insignificant differences were detected meristic counts among different population tested. The hierarchical cluster analysis based on quantitative phenotype (morphometric landmark-morphometric and meristic character indices), grouped the four population into three major category groups; the first: Alexandria and Senegal group; the second; Alexandria, Senegal and Red sea population; and the third: China population group. A dendrogram also showed that Alexandria and Senegal group appears to be more phenotypically similar compared to Red sea population. Moreover, China population group appears to be more phenotypically different compared to the others. Therefore, it was observed in this study that the phenotype analysis based on a large number of morphometric and Landmark based on morphometric character indices and meristic counts, can be used to discriminate fish strains up to the intraspecific level.
