Analysis of phylogenetic status of Luciobarbus esocinus, Luciobarbus xanthopterus, Tor grypus, and Mesopotamichties sharpeyi

Among the Iranian freshwater fishes, Luciobarbus esocinus, L. xanthopterus, Mesopothamichthies sharpeyi, and Tor grypus have a good growth rate in nature bringing its proposals on their controlled breeding and cultivation. This study aimed to analyze the mitochondrial phylogeny of L. esocinus, L. xanthopterus, M. sharpeyi, and T. grypus. In this study, the sequences of Cytochrom Oxidase subunit one (COI) was used. The specimens analyzed here were collected from Shadegan Wetland (Khuzistan Province, Iran) and rivers of the Tigris basin in Ghasr-e-Shirin, Iran. Based on the results, it is shown that T. grypus and M. sharpeyi are phylogenetically closely related and closely affined to the genus Tor. In addition, it is shown that L. esocinus and L. xanthopterus are closely related (0.6% K2P distance), which may indicate a recent divergence of them or possible hybrid origin for one of them. Finally it can be inferred that M. sharpeyi and T. grypus are affined to the Oriental (East Asian) and Indian species, but have diverged in the Mesopotamia and L. esocinus and L. xanthopterus are not affined to the Asian species but have Palearctic origin.