Phylogeny of Gobiidae and identification of gobiid lineages

The teleost family Gobiidae includes at least 1120 described species of fishes, distributed worldwide in both tropical and temperate habitats. The majority of gobies inhabit marine environments, in particular Old World coral reefs. However, a radiation of gobiids inhabits the rivers and near-shore habitats of Europe and Asia, and a variety of genera are also found in the seas of the New World. This study builds on previous work in which gobiids were placed among their gobioid relatives by adding additional taxa as well as additional markers, providing a much more comprehensive portrait of gobiid intrarelationships and including all major lineages of gobies. We used DNA sequences from both mitochondrial (ND1, ND2, COI) and nuclear (RAG2, Rhodopsin, RNF213) genes to infer phylogeny among 127 representatives of 100 species of gobies, using two gobionellid species as outgroups. We delineated 13 lineages within Gobiidae, including one clade of shrimp-associated gobies represented by the genera Cryptocentrus, Mahidolia and Stonogobiops and a second separate shrimp-associated goby clade including Amblyeleotris, Ctenogobiops and Vanderhorstia. The Mediterranean, Ponto-Caspian and Eastern Atlantic gobies are resolved in a clade along with two genera known from the Western Indian Ocean. Invasion of the New World is shown to have occurred multiple times among the sampled taxa, in the American seven-spined gobies, the Coryphopterus, Lophogobius and Rhinogobiops radiation (sister to Fusigobius) and separately in the wormfishes Cerdale and Microdesmus, resolved in a clade alongside the Indo-Pacific Gunnellichthys, Ptereleotris and Nemateleotris. The cosmopolitan genera Bathygobius and Priolepis represent further separate radiations, and Lythrypnus shows complex relationships with both Priolepis and Trimma.