Phylogenetic relationships of Eurasian and American cyprinids using cytochrome <i>b</i> sequences

Abstract

Neighbour‐joining and parsimony analyses identified five lineages of cyprinids: (1) European leuciscins (including Notemigonus )+North American phoxinins (including Phoxinus phoxinus ); (2) European gobionins+Pseudorasbora ; (3) primarily Asian groups [cultrins+acheilognathins+ gobionins (excluding Abbotina )+xenocyprinins]; (4) Abbottina+Sinocyclocheilus+Acrossocheilus ; (5) cyprinins [excluding Sinocyclocheilus and Acrossocheilus ]+barbins+labeonins. Relationships among these lineages and the enigmatic taxa Rhodeus were not well‐resolved. Tests of monophyly of subfamilies and previously proposed relationships were examined by constraining cytochrome b sequences data to fit previous hypotheses. The analysis of constrained trees indicated that sequence data were not consistent with most previously proposed relationships. Inconsistency was largely attributable to Asian taxa, such as Xenocypris and Xenocyprioides . Improved understanding of historical and taxonomic relationships in Cyprinidae will require further morphological and molecular studies on Asian cyprinids and taxa representative of the diversity found in Africa.