title: Integrative taxonomy detects cryptic and overlooked fish species in a neotropical river basin.
abstract: The great freshwater fish diversity found in the neotropical region makes management and conservation actions challenging. Due to shortage of taxonomists and insufficient infrastructure to deal with such great biodiversity (i.e. taxonomic impediment), proposed remedies to accelerate species identification and descriptions include techniques that combine DNA-based identification and concise morphological description. The building of a DNA barcode reference database correlating meristic and genetic data was developed for 75 % of the Mucuri River basin's freshwater fish. We obtained a total of 141 DNA barcode sequences from 37 species belonging to 30 genera, 19 families, and 5 orders. Genetic distances within species, genera, and families were 0.74, 9.5, and 18.86 %, respectively. All species could be clearly identified by the DNA barcodes. Divergences between meristic morphological characteristics and DNA barcodes revealed two cryptic species among the Cyphocharax gilbert and Astyanax gr. bimaculatus specimens, and helped to identify two overlooked species within the Gymnotus and Astyanax taxa. Therefore, using a simplified model of neotropical biodiversity, we tested the efficiency of an integrative taxonomy approach for species discovery, identification of cryptic diversity, and accelerating biodiversity descriptions.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Zoologia de Vertebrados, Laboratório de Genética da Conservação, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Rua Dom José Gaspar, 500,Coração Eucarístico, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30535-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Laís Carvalho
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Tiago Casarim
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Pessali
authors.forename: Naiara Guimarães
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Sales
authors.forename: Paulo Santos
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Pompeu
authors.forename: Daniel Cardoso
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Carvalho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001938:Brazil; D060126:Characidae / Q000235:genetics; D002965:Classification; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods*; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D056145:Freshwater Biology; D010802:Phylogeny; D045483:Rivers; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity