Comparative Analysis of a Mitochondrial DNA Control Region Fragment Amplified from Three Adriatic Flatfish Species and Molecular Phylogenesis of Pleuronectiformes

The 5′-end of the mitochondrial control region of three Pleuronectiformes from the Adriatic Sea, Platichthys flesus italicus (Adriatic flounder), Solea vulgaris (common sole), and Solea kleini (Klein's sole), was sequenced and compared with that of six other flatfish species from the families Pleuronectidae and Bothidae. The sequence structures of all flatfishes appear very similar and consist of alternate short segments with low, medium, and high rates of nucleotide substitution. Four conserved 19-bp repeats occur at the beginning of the European and Adriatic flounder sequences. The common occurrence of tandem arrays in fish control regions could be related to a stable secondary structure. Molecular phylogenetic relationships among Pleuronectiformes agree well with previous morphologic data at all taxonomic levels. Molecular analyses could therefore contribute to resolving phylogenetic and taxonomic debates within the Pleuronectiformes. Received December 1, 1997; accepted June 30, 1998.