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Dear Colleagues,

With an estimated 32,000 known species, fishes constitute almost 50% of extant vertebrate biodiversity and exhibit tremendous variation in morphology, behavior, physiology, and ecology. Fishes also occupy diverse habitats of the planet, including the Hadal Zone, the Tibetan Plateau, and the Antarctic, which impose inhospitable living conditions on fishes.

However, the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for the extraordinary diversity and adaptation of fishes remain largely unknown. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, it is now feasible to identify and characterize the genetic basis underlying the adaptations to various environmental stress, including cold temperatures, low oxygen concentrations, strong ultraviolet radiation, and high pressures.

This Special Issue welcomes case reports, original research articles, and critical reviews in the field of the evolution and genomics of fishes, including phylogeny, biogeography, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics. Manuscripts focusing on genomics application will be appreciated, although the topic covers all aspects of fish evolution.

Dr. Liandong Yang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

fish
evolution
adaptation
phylogeny
biogeography
genomics
epigenomics

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Open AccessArticle

Mitogenomic Characterization of Cameroonian Endemic Coptodon camerunensis (Cichliformes: Cichlidae) and Matrilineal Phylogeny of Old-World Cichlids

Fantong Zealous Gietbong

Arif Wibowo

and

Hyun-Woo Kim

Genes 2023, 14(8), 1591; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14081591 - 06 Aug 2023

Viewed by 716

Abstract

The mitogenomic evolution of old-world cichlids is still largely incomplete in Western Africa. In this present study, the complete mitogenome of the Cameroon endemic cichlid, Coptodon camerunensis, was determined by next-generation sequencing. The mitogenome was 16,557 bp long and encoded with 37 genes (13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and a control region). The C. camerunensis mitogenome is AT-biased (52.63%), as exhibited in its congener, Coptodon zillii (52.76% and 53.04%). The majority of PCGs start with an ATG initiation codon, except COI, which starts with a GTG codon and five PCGs and ends with the TAA termination codon and except seven PCGs with an incomplete termination codon. In C. camerunensis mitogenome, most tRNAs showed classical cloverleaf secondary structures, except tRNA-serine with a lack of DHU stem. Comparative analyses of the conserved blocks of two Coptodonini species control regions revealed that the CSB-II block was longer than other blocks and contained highly variable sites. Using 13 concatenated PCGs, the mitogenome-based Bayesian phylogeny easily distinguished all the examined old-world cichlids. Except for Oreochromini and Coptodinini tribe members, the majority of the taxa exhibited monophyletic clustering within their respective lineages. C. camerunensis clustered closely with Heterotilapia buttikoferi (tribe Heterotilapiini) and had paraphyletic clustering with its congener, C. zillii. The Oreochromini species also displayed paraphyletic grouping, and the genus Oreochromis showed a close relationship with Coptodinini and Heterotilapiini species. In addition, illustrating the known distribution patterns of old-world cichlids, the present study is congruent with the previous hypothesis and proclaims that prehistoric geological evolution plays a key role in the hydroclimate of the African continent during Mesozoic, which simultaneously disperses and/or colonizes cichlids in different ichthyological provinces and Rift Lake systems in Africa. The present study suggests that further mitogenomes of cichlid species are required, especially from western Africa, to understand their unique evolution and adaptation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Evolution and Genomics)

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