High cryptic diversity of the bitterling fish in southern West Palearctic
Abstract
South-east Europe, along with the adjacent region of south-west Asia, is an important biodiversity hotspot with high local endemism largely contributed by contemporary continental lineages that retreated to southern refugia during colder Quaternary periods. We investigated the genetic diversity of the European bitterling fish (Rhodeus amarus) species complex (Cyprinidae) across its range in the western Palearctic, but with a particular emphasis in the region of Balkan, Pontic and Caspian refugia. We genotyped 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci and a partial sequence of mitochondrial gene cytochrome b (CYTB) for a set of 1,038 individuals from 60 populations. We used mtDNA sequences to infer phylogenetic relationships and historical demography, and microsatellite markers to describe fine-scale genetic variability and structure. Our mtDNA analysis revealed six well-supported lineages, with limited local co-occurrence. Two lineages are distributed throughout central and western Europe (lineages “A” and “B”), with two zones of secondary contact. Another two lineages were restricted to the Ponto-Aegean region of Greece (lineages “C” and “D”) and the final two lineages were restricted south of the Caucasus mountains (lineage “E” from the Black Sea watershed and lineage “F” from the Caspian watershed). A signal of recent expansion was revealed in the two widespread lineages and the Ponto-Aegean lineage “C”. The geographic distribution of clusters detected by nuclear microsatellites corresponded well with mitochondrial lineages and demonstrated finely sub-structured populations. A profound population structure suggested a significant role of genetic drift in differentiation among lineages. Lineage divergence in the Ponto-Aegean and Caspian regions are substantial, supporting the validity of two described endemic species (Rhodeus meridionalis as lineage “D” and Rhodeus colchicus as lineage “E”) and invite taxonomic evaluation of the other two southern lineages (Thracean “C” and Caspian “F”).
Citation
Bartáková , V , Bryja , J , Šanda , R , Bektas , Y , Stefanov , T , Choleva , L , Smith , C H & Reichard , M 2019 , ' High cryptic diversity of the bitterling fish in southern West Palearctic ' , Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution , vol. 133 , pp. 1-11 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.12.025
Publication
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1055-7903Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018, Elsevier Inc. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher's policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.12.025
Description
Principal financial support came from the Czech Science Foundation (13-05872S) to MR. RŠ was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (DKRVO 2018/14, National Museum, 00023272). LC acknowledges institutional support RVO: 67985904.Collections
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