Natural Hybridization of Luciobarbus barbulus x Luciobarbus kersin and Luciobarbus barbulus x Luciobarbus xanthopterus in the Persian Gulf Basin

Özet

Among vertebrates, hybridization is common phenomena in cyprinid fishes particularly among closely relatedspecies/genera which share common habit and habitat (niche) requirements and desires. In this paper we report presence oftwo hybrids of Luciobarbus barbulus x Luciobarbus kersin and Luciobarbus barbulus x Luciobarbus xanthopterus from theTigris River tributaries (the Persian Gulf basin), southwestern Iran. The hybrid specimens were identified on the basis of theirintermediate morphological characteristics with the parent species and the position of them in the clade and close geneticdistance with their maternal sequences. Our studies showed intermediate characteristics between putative hybrids and theirparents. In the putative hybrid of L. barbulus and L. kersin, the general characteristics and morphometric measurements aresimilar to one parent especially paternal characteristics (L. kersin), although most of the meristic characteristics are similar tomaternal characteristics (L. barbulus). The other putative hybrid between L. barbulus and L. xanthopterus show the generalappearance for L. barbulus (the putative father) and some meristic characteristics were similar to L. xanthopterus (the putativemother). Low abundance of the hybrids shows that the hybridization might be a random event.