Using DNA Barcoding Technique to Identify Some Scleractinian Coral Species along the Egyptian Coast of the Red Sea and Southern of Arabian Gulf

Author(s): Mohammed Ahmed Sadek, Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, Fedekar Fadel Madkour and Mahmoud Hasan Hanafy

Scleractinian corals Phylogenetic studies have been shown that most taxa are not matched with their evolutionary histories. Using gross morphology as principal base, traditional taxonomy cannot solve the lack of well-defined and homologous characters that can describe scleractinian diversity sufficient. Scleractinian Coral species are hard to identify because of their morphological plasticity. DNA barcoding techniques were used to build molecular phylogenetic analysis to some common scleractinian species in Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Porites harrisoni, was clustered separate from other Porites sp collected from gene bank. While for Acropora digitefra genetic divergences were recorded between samples collected from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba. Platygyra daeleda sample from Fanous (Red Sea) were distinct from other Platygyra daeleda samples same case were recorded with Pocillopora verrucosa samples. The DNA barcoding technique proves to be very useful in not only differentiating between species but also finding genetic diversity within species.