Morphological and molecular relationships of small barbs, barbus spp. (actinopterygii: cyprinidae) from Malagarasi and Pangani river basins, Tanzania
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Date
2013
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University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
Adjusted morphometric measurements, meristic counts, body shapes estimation and cytochrome b gene sequences were analyzed to establish the phylogenetic relationship among the three species of barbs namely; Barbus jacksonii, Barbus trimaculatus and Barbus paludinosus from Pangani and Malagarasi River basins. Conventional and geometric morphometrics, and molecular techniques were the tools used to resolve the overlapping phenotypic characters among the studied Barbus species. The Principal Component Analysis results showed that some individuals from B. paludinosus population have radiated morphologically and further that, B. paludinosus differed significantly from the other two species. The geometric morphometric technique indicated that, shape variations amongst the studied species were remarkable in both groups, the Tanzanian (Malagarasi and Pangani populations) and those from Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. The results of cytochrome b gene sequences analysis based on maximum parsimony method revealed that B. paludinosus from Hale and Pangani populations occurred in two distinct genetic lineages though separated by a distance of approximately 10 km apart. Similar findings were also noted amongst the population of B. paludinosus in Songati and Muumbara located on Lake Sagara in the Malagarasi River basin. The Barbus spp. from Africa included in the current study showed genetic affinity to neither European Barbus spp. nor South African redfins of the genus Pseudobarbus to conclude that the studied species of barbs are taxonomically quite different that needs further investigations to warrant renaming.
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Keywords
Barbus, Cyrinidae, Malagarasi river basin, Pangani river basin, Tanzania
Citation
Kamugisha, G.B (2013) Morphological and molecular relationships of small barbs, barbus spp. (actinopterygii: cyprinidae) from Malagarasi and Pangani river basins, Tanzania, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam (Available at http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspx)