Definition of three distinct taxa within the Barbus species complex

Definition of three distinct taxa within the Barbus species complex
Andrea Marchi b, Federico Plazzi a, Giovanni Rossi a, Marco Valli b, Gianluca Zuffi b, Rosanna
Falconi a
a
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum Università
di Bologna, via Selmi 3, 40126 Bologna
b
Hydrosynergy s.c., via Emilia, 168, 40068 San Lazzaro di Savena (Bologna)
The genus Barbus Cuvier & Cloquet 1816 is still debated for what concerns its sytematics. A recent
origin (about 30 millions of years ago), high levels of hybridization and many impeached
identifications scattered across public databases hamper a correct resolution of this taxon.
Conversely, at different hierarchical levels, most entities within this genus would deserve a better
defined status, especially because of conservation issues. Many different classifications have been
proposed, and, while a widely accepted one is still lacking, different authors assign different
statuses to the same fishes, leading to abrupt and unwarranted changes in conservation policies.
In the present work, we collected a wide sample of Barbus specimens across the whole continental
Italy and we used two mitochondrial markers (cytb and d-loop) to (i) unravel phylogenetic
relationships and (ii) measure genetic distances, in the largest effort to date for this genus. As
expected, a geographical clustering was retrieved, and Italian mainland may be subdivided into
three distinct patches. Furthermore, our results clearly indicate the presence of three entities of the
same level within the Italian Barbus biodiversity.