Morphological and genetic characteristics of garfish Belone belone (L., 1760) (Belonidae, Teleostei) population from the southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate genetic and some morphometric and meristic characteristics of garfish Belone belone from Nesebar in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Twelve morphometric characters were measured, and six meristic characters were counted for each individual. Based on both sexes' morphological and meristic analyses, no statistically significant sexual differences were observed. Additionally, DNA barcoding was done. The fragment of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of mitochondrial DNA was sequenced to supplement the species identification and popu- lation diversity study. Two haplotypes were found out of 39 sequences, indicating a low level of haplotype diversity (0.146 +/- 0.072). Nucleotide diversity was also found to be low (0.00023 +/- 0.00011). The Nesebar population of B. belone requires conservation efforts, due to the highly decreased mtDNA genetic diversity.