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A molecular systematic survey of the Iranian Persian Gulf octocorals (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea)

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Abstract

Octocorals (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) are distributed worldwide and their taxonomy in the Persian Gulf has been a subject of controversy among experts due to their cryptic features. Here, we present a primary review of the Alcyonacea in the Iranian Persian Gulf with molecular documentation to provide insight into the real diversity within this order. Our molecular study was based on two mitochondrial protein-coding (COI and mtMuts) and one nuclear (28S rDNA) gene sequences, which identified seven families, 14 genera, and 21 species of Octocorallia in the Persian Gulf that were well-supported by maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. Our results indicate consistency between morphological and molecular characteristics at the species level. We conclude the presence of some heterogeneous groups of genera creates ambiguity in our analysis.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Iranian Biological Resource Center. We greatly appreciate thank the Environment Protection Agencies (EPA) that provided us residency during sampling. We thank PhD candidate Neda Fahimi for their valuable assistance in this work. We are also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose comments have allowed us to improve this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Biology, Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and Technology, Khorramshahr, Iran

    Shemshad Shahbazi, Nasrin Sakhaei & Hossein Zolgharnein

  2. Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, USA

    Catherine S McFadden

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  1. Shemshad Shahbazi
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  2. Nasrin Sakhaei
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No animal testing was performed during this study.

Sampling and field studies

All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the authors from the competent authorities and are mentioned in the acknowledgements. Sample collection was carried out under permission No. 96/3357 on 5 February 2018, from the Department of Environment of Hormozgan Provincial Directorate.

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SS, NS, and HZ conceived and designed the research. SS collected specimens and laboratory activities. SS and CM analyzed the data and did the illustrations. SS and CM wrote and approved the manuscript and English editing of the manuscript by CM. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Communicated by D. Huang

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Table 3 Specimens and taxa included in molecular phylogenetic analysis
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Shahbazi, S., Sakhaei, N., Zolgharnein, H. et al. A molecular systematic survey of the Iranian Persian Gulf octocorals (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea). Mar. Biodivers. 51, 11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01147-8

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