Molecular phylogeny of the Cobitoidea (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) revisited: position of enigmatic loach Ellopostoma resolved with six nuclear genes

Abstract

Molecular variation in six nuclear genes provides substantive phylogenetic evidence for the recognition of a new cypriniform family, the Ellopostomatidae, to include the enigmatic Southern Asia loach genus Ellopostoma. The current six loach families form a monophyletic group, with the Nemacheilidae as the sister group to Ellopostomatidae; Vaillantellidae forms the sister group to all families exclusive of Botiidae. While the superfamily Cobitoidea includes eight families, the monophyly of this large clade within the Cypriniformes remains a vexing problem despite extensive molecular analyses and is in need of further investigation.

Phylogeny and speciation time estimation of two Koreocobitis species (Teleostei; Cypriniformes; Cobitidae) endemic to Korea inferred from their complete mitogenomic sequences

“…The order Cypriniformes was recovered as the monophyly with highest statistical support, and it bifurcated into two monophyletic clades according to superfamilial classification (i.e., Cyprinoidea and Cobitoidea). The interfamilial relationships among seven families belonging to Cobitoidea were generally congruent with previous studies based on both mitochondrial genes (Saitoh et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2010) and nuclear genes (Šlechtová et al, 2007;Chen et al, 2009). Among these families, all species of Cobitidae formed a monophyletic group supported by highest statistical values, exhibiting an apparent kinship to the clade composed of Balitoridae and Nemacheilidae.…”

Molecular phylogeny of the cyprinid tribe Labeonini (Teleostei: Cypriniformes)

“…In recent years, molecular studies have been conducted on members of this group to better understand their relationships and to develop more accurate taxonomic classifications based on phylogeny (e.g. Šlechtová et al, 2007;Chen et al, 2009;Doosey et al, 2009;Mayden et al, 2009;Mayden and Chen, 2010;Tang et al, 2010Tang et al, , 2011. The tribe Labeonini (sensu Rainboth, 1991) is a clade of freshwater fishes in the Cyprinidae, the largest family of the order Cypriniformes.…”

Phylogenetic relationships of the Cobitoidea (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear genes with analyses of gene evolution

“…Mayden et al (2009), using nuclear and mitochondrial genes, recovered a sister group relationship identical to that of Saitoh et al (2006, see above). At about the same time, the phylogenetic position of Ellopostoma was examined by Chen et al (2009) and this enigmatic genus was strongly supported as sister to the Nemacheilidae, like Vaillantella, that necessitated the formation of the new family Ellopostomatidae, to maintain a natural classification. These studies and others (Chen et al, 2008;Mayden and Chen, 2010;Mayden et al, 2008) provide critical, stable, and well supported evidence as to large-scale relationships between and within the Paedocypridoidea, Cyprinoidea and Cobitoidea.…”