Biochemical Systematics of the Genus Clinocottus (Cottidae)

Abstract

The five species of Clinocottus occur in intertidal habitats along the <br /><br />Pacific Coast of North America. Genetic variation among these species was ex- <br /><br />amined to determine the evolutionary relationships within the genus. Allelic fre- <br /><br />quencies at nine protein-encoding loci were surveyed using starch gel electropho- <br /><br />resis. These loci were either polytypic or polymorphic among the taxa examined. <br /><br />The five species of Clinocottus shared alleles at 46% of the loci examined. In <br /><br />contrast, a closely related species, Oligocottus maculosis, shared alleles with Cli- <br /><br />nocottus at 27% of examined loci. Phenetic and cladistic analyses support Bolin's <br /><br />(1 947) analysis of the evolution of the genus, yielding a phylogeny that is congruent <br /><br />with his scheme based upon external morphological characters.