Comparative study on the surface ultrastructures of fertilized eggs of three Sebastes species

ABSTRACT

Fertilized eggs of Sebastes schlegelii, Sebastes pachycephalus and Sebastes hubbsi are morphologically similar under stereomicroscope. However, under the scanning electron microscope, significant differences in the ultrastructures of the egg surface among the three species were observed, and herein, a taxonomic key was proposed for future applications. A clustering analysis based on the ultrastructures of the egg surface and the diameter of the oil globule suggested that among the three species, S. hubbsi and S. pachycephalus were more genetically similar, while S. schlegelii had diverged earlier. The results agree with the conclusions drawn from morphological and molecular analyses on adult samples of the same species.

SUBJECT EDITOR:

• Audrey J. Geffen

KEYWORDS:

• Micropyle
• morphology
• pore
• rockfishes
• species identification
• vestibule

Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate the help of Miss Fengxia Zhang and Senior Engineer Jinshan Tan in collecting samples and in the observation of the ultrastructures of the samples during this research, respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Peidong Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1564-1807

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program) [grant number 2015CB453302]; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31172447, 41176117 and 31272667].