Dissimilarity of Species and Forms of Planktonic Neocalanus Copepods Using Mitochondrial COI 12S Nuclear ITS and 28S Gene Sequences

摘要

BackgroundA total of six Neocalanus species inhabit the oceans of the world. Of these, three species plus form variants (N. cristatus, N. plumchrus, N. flemingeri large form, and N. flemingeri small form), which constitute a monophyletic group among Neocalanus copepods, occur in the Northwestern Pacific off Japan. In the present study, we have tried to discriminate the three species plus form variants of Neocalanus copepods based on sequences of four DNA marker regions.