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Bibliografische gegevens
Hoofdauteurs: Tolon, Mustafa Tolga, Gökçek, Emel Özcan
Formaat: Recurso digital
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Gepubliceerd in: Zenodo 2025
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Online toegang:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16604040
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  • <p><b><i>Apostichopus japonicus</i> Selenka, 1867</b></p><p><b>Habitat</b></p><p>The sampling site is on the coast of Çeşme District which is located in the westernmost part of Turkey, extends into the Aegean Sea, and stands out for its tourism, fishing, and maritime trade. This region is also an important area where local commercial sea cucumber species like <i>Holothuria tubulosa</i> Gmelin, 1790, <i>Holothuria poli</i> Delle Chiaje, 1824, <i>Holothuria mammata</i> Grube, 1840, and <i>Holothuria sanctori</i> Delle Chiaje, 1823 are abundantly distributed. The seabed of the sampling zone predominantly comprised a stony-rocky substrate, with occasional observations of seagrass patches.</p><p>Remote sensing data from observation satellites for 2024 were used to evaluate the abiotic characteristics of the area where the non-native <i>A. japonicus</i> species had adapted and been sampled. The results indicated that the average bottom seawater temperature was 18.26 ± 0.65 °C (17.34-19.27 °C), mean salinity was 39.36± 0.09 ppt (39.25-39.52 ppt), mean pH was 8.08 ± 0.03 (8.02-8.12) (Escudier <i>et al.</i> 2020), and the diatom concentration was 10.34 ± 4.84 mg /l (4.08-18.79 mg /l) (Feudale <i>et al.</i> 2022).</p><p><b>Morphology</b></p><p>Morphologically, the sampled species were characterised by an elongated cylindrical body ranging from 72.5 to 160.0 mm in length and 21.79 to 88.30 g in weight. The body surface is soft but roughened by numerous papillae and conical projections that give it a tuberculated appearance (Fig 2a). Ventral side flattened. The dorsal side is typically darker, exhibiting shades of brown, olive-green, or reddish hues, often patterned with spots or bands, whereas the ventral side is lighter (Fig 2 b-c). Tube feet arranged in 5–6 rows in the central ambulacral area and 4–5 rows in both lateral ambulacral areas (Fig 2d). The mouth is located ventrally and surrounded by a ring of small papillae (Fig 2e), and the anus is terminally positioned with respiratory trees extending into the cloaca for gas exchange. Cuvierian tubules are not observed. Creamy white and orange gonadal tubules are attached to the dorsal mesentery (Fig 2 f-g). A single Polian vesicle is present in various sizes. The body wall is thick and contains ossicles, primarily perforated plates, and rods.</p><p>The mean length and gutted body weight of the sampled population were 110.34 ± 22.18 mm and 46.16 ± 18.38 g (n = 58), respectively. Young specimens between 72.50 and 112.50 mm in length were most abundant in the population (Figure 3). However, nearly 75% of the remaining specimens (n=12), over 130 mm in length, had coloured mature gonad tubules in both sexes.</p><p>The estimated parameters for the Length-Weight Relationship (LWR) using the given data were a = 0.0085, b = 1.821, and R² = 0.877. This indicated a strong fit of the model (R² = 87.7%), and the growth pattern was slightly negative allometric (b <3), meaning that the weight increased more slowly than the cube of the length (Figure 4).</p><p><b>Ossicles</b></p><p>Reduced tables with reduced pillars were absent in the dorsal and ventral body walls of the specimens. The table disk is oval to circular, featuring smooth edges and 4–22 irregular holes (Fig 5 a-b). Papillae contain various ossicles including multiperforated plates, reduced tables and rods. The reduced tables were elongated and displayed two longitudinal rows with four to five perforations (Fig 5c). The multiperforated and reduced papillae plates have 5-7 uneven central holes that ranged from smooth to uneven, but not spiny (Fig 5d).</p><p><b>Molecular Identification and Phylogenetic Tree</b></p><p>In this study, partial gene regions of 692 bp for the COI gene and 570 bp for the 16S rRNA gene were amplified and sequenced from six randomly sampled sea cucumber individuals. Two haplotypes for the COI region and one haplotype for the 16S rRNA region were obtained, and the sequences were submitted to the NCBI GenBank database with accession numbers PQ873053, PQ873054, and PQ873886, respectively. BLAST analysis of the NCBI GenBank database showed that both COI haplotypes were more than 99% similar to the <i>A. japonicus</i> COI gene sequence with the accession number KP170616 which was sampled from Vladivostok, Russia. The 16S rRNA haplotype matched 100% with the <i>A. japonicus</i> 16S rRNA sequence from Oita, Japan (accession number GU557148).</p><p>The ML tree based on the T92 nucleotide substitution model for the mtCOI and 16S rRNA gene regions showed that more than 70% of the <i>A. japonicus</i> haplotypes sampled from the Aegean Sea and other <i>A. japonicus</i> samples from the Northeast Pacific Ocean belonged to the same clade. In contrast, <i>A. parvimensis</i>, <i>Parastichopus regalis</i>, <i>Parathicopus californicus</i>, and <i>Holothuria poli</i> samples showed separate divergence from <i>A. japonicus</i> samples (Figure 6a, b).</p>