Abstract
Peacock bass, a fish of the genus Cichla, is an exotic species from the upper river Parana floodplain in which the species Cichla kelberi and C. piquiti have been confirmed, coupled to the specie C. monoculus upstream in the Capivara and Taquarucu dams. The introduction of this genus has caused negative impacts on the diversity of native species. Current research prospects DNA sequences capable of distinguishing the three species and provide molecular data for the taxonomic characterization of the species in the upper Parana River basin. Sequencing of nuclear (tmo4c4, dlx2 and bmp4) and mitochondrial (cox1, cytb) loci were done from fish of the three species of the genus Cichla reported in the literature of the upper Parana River basin. Sequence analysis provided molecular differentiation for the species through the usage of loci cytb, dlx2 and cox1. Since the latter only distinguished C. piquiti from the other Cichla species, the loci bmp4 and tmo4c4 were not adequate to accomplish our aim.
Highlights
Fish of the genus Cichla belong to the order Perciformes and the family Cichlidae, popularly known in Brazil as peacock bass (Tucunaré)
The nuclear locus tmo4c4 was amplified according to Schelly et al (2006); primers described by Streelman et al (1998) were used for locus tmo4c4; and primers described by Smith et al (2008) were used for loci bmp4 and dlx2
The regions cox1 and cytb were individually evaluated for alignment
Summary
Fish of the genus Cichla belong to the order Perciformes and the family Cichlidae, popularly known in Brazil as peacock bass (Tucunaré). The family is one of the main models of speciation in evolutionary biology due to its diversification on the Great Lakes of Africa, which led to the formation of species with different ecological adaptations in a relatively short period of geological time (JOYCE et al, 2011). It has been focused upon by many phylogenetic researches (LÓPEZ-FERNÁNDEZ et al, 2010). Since genetic analysis has shown genetic introgression among some of the species, the validity of this classification has been questioned (WILLIS et al, 2012)
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