Molecular Phylogeny of Egyptian Sea Cucumbers As Predicted From 16s Mitochondrial rRNA Gene Sequences

Abstarct: A molecular phylogenetic analysis of some Holothuroidea was undertaken in order to clarify the systematics and taxonomy of this class in the red sea. DNA sequence for portions of 16S mitochondrial genes was obtained from 4 species of sea cucumbers. The resulting molecular phylogeny using maximum likelihood methods of the Holothuroidea conflicting existing taxonomy, which is based largely on the morphology of calcareous parts. In particular, evolutionary relationships among the brooding species were clarified. The current results confirmed that the species Holothuria fuscogilva, Actinopyga mauritiana, Holothuria nobilis and Sea cucumber leaves , were identical to Cucumaria frondosa, Pentacta pygmaea, and Cucumaria pseudocurata Psolus fabricii , respectively with Query coverage 100%, Zero Evalue and Max identical 100%. It was suggested that an in-depth phylogenetic analysis of sea cucumber families will require examination of additional, more slowly evolving, regions of the genome(s).