Buj Ivana, Ćaleta Marko, Marčić Zoran, Šanda Radek, Vukić Jasna, Mrakovčić Milorad
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
Faculty of Teacher education, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
PLoS One. 2015 Jul 15;10(7):e0131580. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131580. eCollection 2015.
The region of Balkans is often considered as an ichthyologic "hot spot", with a great number of species and high portion of endemics living in fresh waters in a relatively small area. The Adriatic watershed in Croatia and Herzegovina is inhabited by six spined loach species (genus Cobitis) whose extinction risk estimations were based solely on their extent of occurrence (and/or area of occupancy) and its fragmentation, and conservation proposals do not consider diversity below species level. In this investigation we employed molecular genetic methods to describe present genetic structure of the Adriatic spined loaches and reveal their demographic history. The divergence of the Adriatic lineages inside the genus Cobitis started in Miocene and lasted until Pleistocene epoch. Geological events responsible for shaping recent diversity of spined loaches in the Adriatic basin are: the Dinarid Mountains upwelling, the evolution of Dinaric Lake system, local tectonic activity, river connections during glaciations and differences in sea level. Even though all the investigated species inhabit karstic rivers located in the same geographic area and that were subject of similar geological events, the results obtained reveal great differences in their genetic diversity and structure and point out the necessity of different conservation measures to ensure their future viability. High level of genetic polymorphism is characteristic for species located more to the south. Two species comprised of more than one population have completely different intraspecific structure; populations of C. illyrica are genetically distinct and represent separate evolutionary significant units, whereas intraspecific structure of C. narentana corresponds to metapopulational pattern. Without population genetic data, evolutionary significant units could be easily misidentified. Furthermore, the obtained results affirm that population genetic measurements are able to detect differences among closely located and related species and estimate extinction risk even more accurately than currently applied IUCN criteria.
巴尔干地区常被视为鱼类学的“热点地区”，在相对较小的区域内，有大量物种和高比例的特有物种生活在淡水中。克罗地亚和黑塞哥维那的亚得里亚海水系栖息着六种多刺泥鳅（Cobitis属），其灭绝风险评估仅基于其分布范围（和/或占用面积）及其破碎化情况，而保护建议并未考虑物种以下水平的多样性。在本研究中，我们采用分子遗传学方法来描述亚得里亚多刺泥鳅的当前遗传结构，并揭示其种群历史。Cobitis属内亚得里亚谱系的分化始于中新世，一直持续到更新世。塑造亚得里亚海盆地近期多刺泥鳅多样性的地质事件有：迪纳拉山脉的隆升、迪纳拉湖系的演化、局部构造活动、冰川期河流的连通以及海平面的差异。尽管所有被研究的物种都栖息在同一地理区域内的岩溶河流中，且经历了相似的地质事件，但所获得的结果显示它们在遗传多样性和结构上存在很大差异，并指出需要采取不同的保护措施以确保它们未来的生存能力。遗传多态性水平高是分布在更南部的物种的特征。由多个种群组成的两个物种具有完全不同的种内结构；伊利里亚多刺泥鳅的种群在遗传上是不同的，代表着独立的进化显著单元，而纳伦塔纳多刺泥鳅的种内结构则符合集合种群模式。没有种群遗传数据，进化显著单元很容易被错误识别。此外，所获得的结果证实，种群遗传测量能够检测出地理位置相近且亲缘关系密切的物种之间的差异，并比目前应用的世界自然保护联盟（IUCN）标准更准确地估计灭绝风险。
