Morphological and molecular analysis of Dendrodoris fumata (Rüppell & Leuckart, 1830) (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) from the Persian Gulf

The present study was conducted to describe morphology and study the phylogeny of Dendrodoris fumata (Rüppell & Leuckart, 1830) from the Persian Gulf (Bostaneh), in 2019. DNA extraction was done using salt-out method, and the polymerase chain reactions promoted using the universal primers HCO2198 and LCO1490. A segment of the mitochondrial gene was selected as molecular marker, and the corresponding sequences were recovered from GenBank and were included in the analyses. The phylogenetic results and the K2P distances revealed that specimens of the Persian Gulf are closer to those of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman, but distant from the specimen of Australia. Based on the phylogenetic trees, D. fumata is a sister species to D. rubra. Moreover, the data showed that D. nigra, the other species that have been previously recorded from the Persian Gulf, stays quite distant from D. fumata.