Genotypic and phenotypic evaluation of Rutilus spp. from Skadar, Ohrid and Prespa Lakes supports revision of endemic as well as taxonomic status of several taxa

Abstract

One mtDNA gene (cytochrome b), one nuclear DNA fragment, five microsatellites and a suite of morphological characters were evaluated in samples of Rutilus spp. from Skadar, Ohrid and Prespa Lakes. Both genetic and phenotypic data supported two sympatric taxa in Lake Skadar, whereby Prespa and Ohrid Lakes revealed only a single taxon each. One of the taxa from Lake Skadar was similar to samples from Lake Prespa, whereas the second taxon was the most divergent in the data set. The estimated time to the most recent common ancestor of these two sympatric taxa in Lake Skadar was between 125 000 and 500 000 years. The data did not support existing taxonomic schemes for Rutilus in these lakes. This study poses the following working hypothesis: (1) Rutilus prespensis lives both in Lake Prespa and Lake Skadar and therefore is not endemic to Lake Prespa, (2) Rutilus ohridanus lives in Lake Ohrid only and therefore could be considered an endemic if its species status is retained and (3) a third recently described taxon (Rutilus albus) sympatric to R. prespensis lives in Lake Skadar.

Phenotypic Plasticity of Rutilus Prespensis (Karaman, S., 1924) From Lake Prespa and Lake Skadar

“…Study on perch (Svanbäck & Eklöv, 2002;2006) indicated that perch caught in the littoral habitat, independent of size, had a deeper body, larger head, and mouth and longer fins than perch caught in the pelagic zone. Bearing in mind that the Lake Skadar is generally shallow and subject to large surface area fluctuations obtained results are in correlation with general littoral distribution of R. prespensis (Milošević et al, 2011).…”

“…from the extant ancient Balkan lakes (Prespa, Ohrid and Skadar) share a relatively recent (within the Pleistocene) common ancestry. This ancestral haplotype was found in Lake Prespa and in Lake Skadar individuals of R. prespensis (Milošević et al, 2011). Genetic variation for a fixed phenotype has been hypothesized in stable environments (Smith, 1993).…”

“…Milošević et al (2011) showed that the Lake Skadar basin is inhabited by two species from genus Rutilus: R. prespensis (Karaman, S., 1924) (local name yellow roach) and R. albus Marić, 2010 (white roach), while Lake Prespa is inhabited by R. prespensis (Prespa roach). Recent studies of these species have been related to taxonomic status and length-weight relationships (Marić & Radujković, 2009;Milošević et al, 2011;Milošević et al, 2012;Milošević & Talevski, 2016). Until now, there was no research dealing with the adaptation of the R. prespensis in this two, in many ways, different environments.…”

Molecular data suggest a multispecies complex of Phoxinus (Cyprinidae) in the Western Balkan Peninsula

“…1). This considerably more structured phylogeographic 200 pattern than previously proposed may explain why taxonomists 201 have been unable to clearly distinguish putative P. lumarieul from 202 P. phoxinus (Bianco, 2014 in morphological (Talevski et al, 2009;Bogutskaya et al, 2012) and 216 molecular studies (Milosević et al, 2011;Tsoumani et al, 2014). 217 Moreover, we found three additional clades along the Adriatic river …”

Μελέτη της βιολογίας και των φυλογενετικών σχέσεων των ειδών Rutilus της οικογένειας Cyprinidae των εσωτερικών υδάτων της Ελλάδας

“…1.2). Rutilus prespensis (Karaman, 1924): ενδημικό της Μικρής και της Μεγάλης Πρέσπας (Crivelli et al 1997, Milosevic et al 2011). Παμβώτιδα (Economidis et al 2000.…”