ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e176535
DNA barcoding reference dataset revealed overlooked diversity and clarified biogeography of fishes in the largest European river system – Volga River
expand article infoBoris Levin‡, Marina Levina‡, Oleg Artaev§, Aleksey Bolotovskiy|, Alexander Gandlin§, Ilya Turbanov#, Aleksandra Komarova‡, Nikolai Mugue¤, Ivan Pozdeev«, Alexander B. Ruchin», Kirill Litvinov˄, Stepan Podolyako˅, Evgeniy Simonov‡
‡ A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia§ Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters Russian Academy of Sciences, Borok, Russia| Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters Russian Academy of Sciences, Borok, Yaroslavl' Prov., Russia¶ A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia# I.D. Papanin Institute of Biology of Inland Waters, Borok, Russia¤ Russian Institute for Fisheries and Oceanography, Moscow, Russia« Saint Peterburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia» Mordovia State Nature Reserve, Pushta settlement, Russia˄ Astrakhan State Reserve, Astrakhan, Russia˅ Astrakhan Biosphere Nature Reserve, Astrakhan, Russia

Corresponding author: Boris Levin ( borislyovin@mail.ru )

© Boris Levin, Marina Levina, Oleg Artaev, Aleksey Bolotovskiy, Alexander Gandlin, Ilya Turbanov, Aleksandra Komarova, Nikolai Mugue, Ivan Pozdeev, Alexander B. Ruchin, Kirill Litvinov, Stepan Podolyako, Evgeniy Simonov.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Levin B, Levina M, Artaev O, Bolotovskiy A, Gandlin A, Turbanov I, Komarova A, Mugue N, Pozdeev I, Ruchin AB, Litvinov K, Podolyako S, Simonov E (2025) DNA barcoding reference dataset revealed overlooked diversity and clarified biogeography of fishes in the largest European river system – Volga River. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e176535
Open Access
Abstract
This study represents the first thorough genetic assessment of freshwater fishes from the Volga River basin – the longest (3,690 km) river in Europe. DNA barcode sequences (COI) were studied in 84 species (approx. 90% of all diversity) belonging to 57 genera and 25 families. Totally 1,327 DNA barcodes (1,151 sequences from 202 localities generated by this study) were used to (i) build a DNA barcode reference library and check for the presence of a barcoding gap; ii) assess the genetic and taxonomic diversity of Volga fishes, and iii) clarify the biogeography of Volga fishes. DNA barcodes are reliable means for the identification of over 95% of analyzed species showing barcode gaps. An overlap between intra- and interspecific genetic distances was present in four species of genera Leuciscus and Rutilus. DNA barcoding identified seven new species for the Volga. Among these are two aggressive alien species (Hemiculter leucisculus and Pseudorasbora parva), while five are aboriginal species in genera Salmo, Leuciscus, Gobio, and Cobitis from neighboring basins, which naturally or human-aided colonized the Volga basin. Moreover, three new phylogenetic lineages (candidate species) were discovered – specifically, in the genera Leucaspius, Phoxinus, and Proterorhinus. While the fish fauna of the Volga is highly mixed, the more ancient Kama displays regional endemism for rheophilic species (e.g., Barbatula, Cottus). Likely, the Kama served as refuge during Pleistocene climate oscillations. In sum, generated COI dataset fills the existing gap in COI database of fishes inhabiting freshwaters of Eastern Europe and will be highly useful in future studies.
Keywords
cryptic diversity, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, Eastern Europe, mitochondrial DNA, molecular identification, phylogeography