Data from: A reliable DNA barcode reference library for the identification of the European shelf fish fauna ...

• Main Authors: Knebelsberger, Thomas, Carvalho, Gary R., Laakmann, Silke, Raupach, Michael J., Neumann, Hermann, Campbell, Patrick D., Landi, Monica, Costa, Filipe O.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2014
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rn636; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rn636

Valid fish species identification is an essential step both for fundamental science and fisheries management. The traditional identification is mainly based on external morphological diagnostic characters, leading to inconsistent results in many cases. Here, we provide a sequence reference library based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) for a valid identification of 93 North Atlantic fish species originating from the North Sea and adjacent waters, including many commercially exploited species. Neighbour-joining analysis based on K2P genetic distances formed nonoverlapping clusters for all species with a ≥99% bootstrap support each. Identification was successful for 100% of the species as the minimum genetic distance to the nearest neighbour always exceeded the maximum intraspecific distance. A barcoding gap was apparent for the whole data set. Within-species distances ranged from 0 to 2.35%, while interspecific distances varied between 3.15 and 28.09%. Distances between congeners were on ... : AlignmentBNEAFSequence alignment of 860 fish DNA barcodes ...