Phylogeny of the members of the genus Alburnoides in Iran using COI gene

Abstract

Up to now, twelve species of the genus Alburnoides belonged to Cyprinidae have been described from Iranian inland water solely based on the morphological characteristics. The described key characters for these species have no efficiency for their discrimination, and cannot help their precise diagnosis. Therefore, this study was conducted to study the phylogenetic relationship and verification of these species based on COI gene. For this purpose, 70 specimens of Alburnoides species were collected from 20 sampling sites in six Iranian inland water basins. To determination of inter- and intra-species genetic differences, the DNA of sampled specimens were extracted based on Phenol-chloroform method, their COI gene were amplified using thermal cycler and were sequenced after purifications. Based on the results, the members of the Iranian species of the genus Alburnoides were divided into seven linages. Maximum and minimum intra-species genetic distances based on K2P criterion were found between the populations of A. samiii, and A. coadi, A. holciki, A. parhami and A. nicolausi, respectively. Furthermore, maximum and minimum inter-species genetic distances based on K2P criterion were calculated between A. qanati and A. holciki (7.56), and A. parhami and A. holciki (0.33). Based on the results of this study using COI gene, the validity of A. parhami, A. coadi and A. nicolausi were not confirmed and it is suggested to be synonym of A. holciki, A. namaki and A. idignensis, respectively.