title: Identification of Triplophysa species from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and its adjacent regions through DNA barcodes.
abstract: The genus Triplophysa is the largest and most difficult to identity morphologically fish group of superfamily Cobitoidea with 140 currently valid species, and is mainly distributed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and adjacent regions. Most species within this genus possess highly similar morphological characteristics for adaption to the highland environment and are very difficult to be identified only based on morphology. The traditional species identification, mainly based on external morphological diagnostic characters, leads to inconsistent results in many cases. Herein, we provided a molecular method based on mitochondrial cytochrome c subunit I (COI) for the identification of Triplophysa fishes. Thirty-three Triplophysa species, 244 individuals, were used to determine whether barcoding was effective in discriminating species for this genus. The mean intraspecific and interspecific K2P distances ranged from 0 to 14.9% (mean, 2.9%) and 0 to 23.4% (mean, 9.7%), respectively. The tree-based analysis displayed most of species formed discrete clusters with strong bootstrap support values (>90%). The results showed that most of Triplophysa species could be identified by DNA barcode and indicated DNA barcode could be used as a molecular marker for these species.
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiuxuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China; Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, PR China; School of Life Sciences, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Huifang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Wujiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Chaochao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiuyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Shunping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China; Key Laboratory of Bio-Resources and Eco-Environment of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, PR China. Electronic address: zbsong@scu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhaobin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D003531:Cypriniformes / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D003575:Cytochromes c1 / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D029941:Fish Proteins; D004247:DNA; D003575:Cytochromes c1
keywords: DNA barcoding; Intraspecific and interspecific genetic distance; Phylogenetic tree; Species identification; Triplophysa