A continental-wide molecular approach unraveling mtDNA diversity and geographic distribution of the Neotropical genus Hoplias

CARDOSO, YAMILA P.; ROSSO, JUAN J.; MABRAGAÑA, EZEQUIEL; GONZÁLEZ-CASTRO, MARIANO; DELPIANI, MATÍAS; AVIGLIANO, ESTEBAN; BOGAN, SERGIO; COVAIN, RAPHAEL; SCHENONE, NAHUEL F.; DÍAZ DE ASTARLOA, JUAN M.

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2018 vol. 13

1932-6203

With an estimate of around 9,000 species, the Neotropical region hosts the greatest diversityof freshwater fishes of the world. Genetic surveys have the potential to unravel isolatedand unique lineages and may result in the identification of undescribed species, acceleratingthe cataloguing of extant biodiversity. In this paper, molecular diversity within the valuableand widespread Neotropical genus Hoplias was assessed by means of DNA Barcoding.The geographic coverage spanned 40 degrees of latitude from French Guiana to Argentina.Our analyses revealed 22 mitochondrial lineages fully supported by means of BarcodeIndex Number, Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery and phylogenetic analyses. This mtDNAsurvey revealed the existence of 15 fully supported mitochondrial lineages within the onceconsidered to be the continentally distributed H. malabaricus. Only four of them are currentlydescribed as valid species however, leaving 11 mitochondrial lineages currently ªmaskedºwithin this species complex. Mean genetic divergence was 13.1%. Barcoding gap analysisdiscriminated 20 out of the 22 lineages tested. Phylogenetic analyses showed that all taxonomicallyrecognized species form monophyletic groups. Hoplias malabaricus sensu strictoclustered within a large clade, excluding the representatives of the La Plata River Basin. Inthe H. lacerdae group, all species but H. curupira showed a cohesive match between taxonomicand molecular identification. Two different genetic lineages were recovered for H.aimara. Given the unexpected hidden mitochondrial diversity within H. malabaricus, the COIsequence composition of specimens from Suriname (the type locality), identified as H. malabaricussensu stricto, is of major importance.