Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

New Morphological and Molecular Data on the Southern Ninespine Stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Gasterosteidae) from Southern Caspian Sea Basin

  • Published:
Journal of Ichthyology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Being a group of popular model organisms in eco-evolutionary biology, genetic, and genomic research studies, the genus Pungitius with 12 species is the most species-rich genus in the stickleback family Gasterosteidae including the Caspian nine-spine stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Kessler, 1859), the only known species from southern Caspian Sea basin. Here, the new data based on morphological and molecular characters of the mtDNA COI barcode region, and current distribution range of P. platygaster is presented. These data confirm the validity of P. platygaster among its congeners, being sister clade to P. hellenicus from Greece. Morphologically, it is distinguished from the other congeneric species by complete pelvic girdle, 8−11 dorsal spines, and presence of large lateral scutes. The Caspian nine-spine stickleback is found in several closely placed freshwater and brackish waterbodies in the southern Caspian Sea.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Abbasi, K., Valipour, A., Talebi Haghighi, D., et al., Atlas of Iranian Fishes, Gilan Inland Waters, Rasht: Gilan Fish. Res. Centre, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Abdoli, A. and Naderi, M., Biodiversity of Fishes of the Southern Basin of the Caspian Sea, Tehran: Abzian Sci. Publ., 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bruford, M.W., Hanotte, O., Brokfield, J.F.Y., and Burke, T., Single-locus and multilocus DNA fingerprinting, in Molecular Genetic Analysis of Populations: A Practical Approach, A.R. Hoelzel, Ed., Oxford: IRL Press, 1992, pp. 225–269.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Coad, B.W., Review of the sticklebacks and pipefishes of Iran (Families Gasterosteidae and Syngnathidae), Iran. J. Ichthyol, 2015, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 133–147. https://doi.org/10.22034/iji.v2i3.63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Darriba, D., Taboada, G.L., Doallo, R., and Posada, D., jModelTest 2: More models, new heuristics and parallel computing, Nat. Methods, 2012, vol. 9 no. 8, Article 772. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2109

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Denys, G. P., Persat, H., Dettai, A., et al., Genetic and morphological discrimination of three species of ninespined stickleback Pungitius spp. (Teleostei, Gasterosteidae) in France with the revalidation of Pungitius vulgaris (Mauduyt, 1848). J. Zool. Syst. Evol., 2018, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 77−101. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzs.12178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Esmaeili, H. R., Mehraban, H., Abbasi, K., et al., Review and updated checklist of freshwater fishes of Iran: Taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Iran. J. Ichthyol., 2017, vol. 4, Suppl. 1, pp. 1−114.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Esmaeili, H.R., Sayyadzadeh, G., Eagderi, S., and Abbasi, K., Checklist of freshwater fishes of Iran, FishTaxa, 2018, vol. 3 no. 3, pp. 1–95.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fricke, R., Eschmeyer, W.N., and van der Laan, R., Eschmeyer’s catalog of fishes: Genera, Species, References, Version 04/2023, 2023. http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/ research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp.

  10. Hall, T.A., BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT, Nucl. Acids Symp Ser., 1999, vol. 41, pp. 95–98. https://doi.org/10.14601/Phytopathol_Mediterr-14998u1.29

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Huelsenbeck, J.P. and Ronquist, F., MrBayes: Bayesian inference of phylogeny, Bioinformatics, 2001, vol. 17, no. 8, pp. 754–755. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/17.8.754

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kapli, P., Lutteropp, S., Zhang, J., et al., Multi-rate poisson tree processes for single-locus species delimitation under Maximum Likelihood and Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Ibid., 2017, vol. 33 no. 11, pp. 1630–1638. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btx025

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kawahara, R., Miya, M., Mabuchi, K., et al., Stickleback phylogenies resolved: Evidence from mitochondrial genomes and 11nuclear genes, Mol. Phylogen. Evol., 2009, vol. 50, no 2, pp. 401–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2008.10.014

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Keivany, Y., Taxonomic revision of the genus Pungitius with emphasis on P. hellenicus, Master’s Thesis, Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1996.

  15. Keivany, Y. and Nelson, J.S., Phylogenetic relationships of sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae), with emphasis on ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius spp.), Behaviour, 2004, vol. 141, no. 11/12, pp. 1485–1497. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539042948187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Keivany, Y., Nelson, J.S., and Economidis, P.S., Validity of Pungitius hellenicus Stephanidis, 1971 (Teleostei, Gasterosteidae), a stickleback fish from Greece, Copeia, 1997, vol. 1997, no. 3, pp. 558−564. https://doi.org/10.2307/1447559

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Khara, H. and Nezami Baluchie, S., Studying fish biodiversity and abundance in Boujagh Wetland of Kiashar, south-western Caspian Sea, Iran. Fish. Sci. J., 2005, vol. 13 no. 4, pp. 41–54.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kiabi, B.H., Abdoli, A., and Naderi, M., Status of the fish fauna in the South Caspian Basin of Iran, Zool. Middle East, 1999, vol. 18, pp. 57–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Kottelat, M. and Freyhof, J., Handbook of European Freshwater Fishes, Berlin, Cornol: Kottelat and Freyhof, 2007.

  20. Matsumoto, T., Matsuura, K., and Hanzawa, N., A new species of nine-spined stickleback, Pungitius modestus (Gasterosteiformes, Gasterosteidae), from northern Honshu, Japan, Zootaxa, 2021, vol. 5005 no. 1, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5005.1.1

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Mattern, M.Y. and McLennan, D.A., Total evidence phylogeny of Gasterosteidae: Combining molecular, morphological and behavioural data, Cladistics, 2004, vol. 20, pp. 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2004.00005.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Merilä, J., Nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius): An emerging model for evolutionary biology research, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., 2013, vol. 1289 no. 1, pp. 18–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12089

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Münzing, V.J., Variabilität, Verbreitung and Systematik der Arten und Unterarten in der Gatting Pungitius Coste, 1848 (Pisces, Gasterosteidae), Z. Zool. Syst. Evol. Forsch, 1969, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 208–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Posada, D. and Crandall, K.A., MODELTEST: Testing the model of DNA substitution, Bioinformatics, 1998, vol. 14, pp. 817–818. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/14.9.817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Sawada, Y., Phylogeny and zoogeography of the superfamily Cobitoidea (Cyprinoidei, Cypriniformes), Hokkaido Univ., 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Stamatakis, A., RAxML-VI-HPC: Maximum likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses with thousands of taxa and mixed models, Bioinformatics, 2006, vol. 22, pp. 2688–2690. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btl446

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., et al., MEGA6: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0, Mol. Biol. Evol., 2013, vol. 30, pp. 2725–2729. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Varadharajan, S., Rastas, P., Löytynoja, A., et al., A high-quality assembly of the nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) genome, Gen. Biol. Evol., 2019, vol. 11, no. 11, pp. 3291–3308. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz240

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Zhao, Y., et al., Phylogenomics of Northeast asian Pungitius sticklebacks, Divers. Distrib., 2021, vol. 28, no. 12, pp. 2610–2621. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ward, R.D., Zemlak, T.S., Innes, H.B., et al., DNA barcoding Australia’s fish species, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci., 2005, vol. 360, no. 1462, pp. 1847–1857. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1716

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Zhang, J., Kapli, P., Pavlidis, P., and Stamatakis, A., A general species delimitation method with applications to phylogenetic placements, Bioinformatics, 2013, vol. 29 no. 22, pp. 2869–2876. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btt499

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Ziuganov, V.V. and Gomeluk, V.Y., Hybridization of two forms of ninespine stickleback, Pungitius pungitius and P. platygaster, under experimental conditions and an attempt to predict the consequences of their contact in nature, Environ. Biol. Fish., 1985, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 241−251. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002908

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are pleased to thank Shiraz University for financial support and F. Zarei (Shiraz University) for preparing the map.

Funding

The research work was funded by Shiraz University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ichthyology and Molecular Systematic Research Laboratory, Zoology Section, Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    H. R. Esmaeili

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

    G. Sayyadzadeh

  3. Inland Waters Aquaculture Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Sciences Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Bandar Anzali, Iran

    K. Abbasi

Authors
  1. H. R. Esmaeili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. G. Sayyadzadeh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Abbasi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. R. Esmaeili.

Ethics declarations

ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The research was approved by Ethics Committee of Biology Department (SU-9233856).

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors of this work declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Fish collection was made by K. Abbasi. Material preparation, and analysis were performed by H.R. Esmaeili and G. Sayyadzadeh. The first draft of the manuscript was written by H.R. Esmaeili and G. Sayyadzadeh. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note.

Pleiades Publishing remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Esmaeili, H.R., Sayyadzadeh, G. & Abbasi, K. New Morphological and Molecular Data on the Southern Ninespine Stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Gasterosteidae) from Southern Caspian Sea Basin. J. Ichthyol. 63, 1062–1071 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945223060036

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945223060036

Keywords:

Search

Navigation