Morphological and Genetic studies of Zoanthid Genus Zoanthus in some coral islands of the Persian Gulf: Qeshm, Larak and Kish

The gender of the dominant Taxon Zoanthus is a subclass of Zoantharia which is known to have a wide variety of colors. This feature make the species identification based on morphological characterization difficult and somewhat impossible. To ensure the accuracy of the identification of genetic research is, hence, inevitable. For this reason, 10 colonies with various colors in three repetitions were collected from the islands of Lark, Qeshm, and Kish. After DNA extraction from the samples, 16S rRNA gene fragment were amplified and finally sequenced by using the PCR method. The results of the present study show that the nucleotide sequence of this mitochondrial gene fragment is identical in all the examined samples and is consistent with the reported sequences of the species of Zoanthus sansibaricus. What this study obtained is undoubtedly a systematic report from the color variation of the available samples in the Iranian islands of the Persian Gulf. Observation of brown, green, gray, red, pink and purple polyps, green and brown tentacles, green, red, blue and pink oral color with oral disc green, red, blue, pink and gray colors confirms a wide range of colors in this species.