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. 2015 Feb 6;10(2):e0112217.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112217. eCollection 2015.

DNA barcoding in pencilfishes (Lebiasinidae: Nannostomus) reveals cryptic diversity across the Brazilian Amazon

Denise Corrêa Benzaquem  1 , Claudio Oliveira  2 , Jaqueline da Silva Batista  3 , Jansen Zuanon  4 , Jorge Ivan Rebelo Porto  1
Affiliations

DNA barcoding in pencilfishes (Lebiasinidae: Nannostomus) reveals cryptic diversity across the Brazilian Amazon

Denise Corrêa Benzaquem et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Nannostomus is comprised of 20 species. Popularly known as pencilfishes the vast majority of these species lives in the flooded forests of the Amazon basin and are popular in the ornamental trade. Among the lebiasinids, it is the only genus to have undergone more than one taxonomic revision. Even so, it still possesses poorly defined species. Here, we report the results of an application of DNA barcoding to the identification of pencilfishes and highlight the deeply divergent clades within four nominal species. We surveyed the sequence variation in the mtDNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene among 110 individuals representing 14 nominal species that were collected from several rivers along the Amazon basin. The mean Kimura-2-parameter distances within species and genus were 2% and 19,0%, respectively. The deep lineage divergences detected in N. digrammus, N. trifasciatus, N. unifasciatus and N. eques suggest the existence of hidden diversity in Nannostomus species. For N. digrammus and N. trifasciatus, in particular, the estimated divergences in some lineages were so high that doubt about their conspecific status is raised.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of the study area showing the sampling sites the pencilfishes collected in this study.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Neighbor-joining tree of 110 mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene sequences from 14 Nannostomus species and two outgroups using Kimura 2-parameter.
Deep conspecific divergences shown by 4 species (N. digrammus, N. trifasciatus, N. unifasciatus and N. eques) are identified as distinct lineages. Bootstrap values based on 1000 replicates are indicated at the branches.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Neighbor-Joining tree and haplotype network of Nannostomus species showing distinct lineages: (A) N. eques, (B) N. unifasciatus, (C) N. digrammus and (D) N. trifasciatus.
In the network each circle represents one haplotype, and theize of the circles is proportional to the haplotype frequency. Color codes represent the lineages found in Nannostomus. Numbers on the lines represent the mutational steps between haplotypes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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