New localities of Scardinius elmaliensis Bogutskaya, 1997 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) and its phylogenetic relationship based on mtDNA Cytb region sequences
Sevilay KARATAŞ, Deniz İNNAL Department of Biology, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey
Sevil SUNGUR BİRECİKLİGİL Department of Biology, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Nevşehir, Turkey
Ertan Mahir KORKMAZ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey
Erdoğan ÇİÇEK Department of Biology, Faculty of Art and Sciences, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Nevşehir, Turkey
Abstract
This study was conducted to report five new localities out of its type locality for Scardinius elmaliensis in the Western Mediterranean Basin of Turkey by providing their morphological characteristics, and their phylogenetic relationship based on mtDNA Cytb region. The results revealed significant differences of all studied populations in terms of the morphometric characters despite their low genetic differences, but their meristic characters were not different. All six studied populations of S. elmaliensis including that of type locality formed a monophyletic group with S. erythrophthalmus as sister group. The molecular result confirmed distinction of S. elmaliensis from S. erythrophthalmus based on Cytb genetic distance of 1.6-1.8%. The occurrence of S. elmaliensis out of type locality was firstly reported in this study. Such knowledge is important for future conservation strategies and habitat management of this species.