The PCA biplot summarizes the overall variety in body shape. The first PC (PC1) explained 31.2% of the variation and the second PC (PC2) explained 18.7% of the variation, for a total of 49.9% of the variation described by these two components. The distribution of PC1 in the scatter plot with PC2 shows that the Huangshan and Qianshan groups basically overlap in one range, with an intersection point with the Yunhe group (Fig 4).
Molecular analysis
Since the morphological characters were not effective in differentiating
A. fasciatus, the results of species delimitation based on three different molecular delimitation methods (GMYC, PTP and ABGD) were used to delimit
A. fasciatus based on the COI gene. The results showed that the molecular delimitation analysis yielded generally consistent results, except for the ABGD analysis with the interspecific genetic distance (P) set to 0.001 and 0.0599, which delimited 8 MOTUs and 1 MOTU (Fig 5). The remaining molecular delimitation analyses yielded roughly the same results, with 2 MOTUs. According to the interspecific genetic distance (P), the ABGD analysis divided species of
A. fasciatus into various numbers of MOTUs. If the interspecific genetic distance (P) is too high, the entire data set is treated as one species, indicating excessive division. In contrast, if the interspecific genetic distance (P) is too low, only the same sequences will be treated as belonging to the same species. Puillandre advised adopting an interspecific genetic distance (P) of 0.01 to delimit species in this situation because findings from ABGD analysis will be as consistent as feasible with those from other approaches when the interspecific genetic distance (P) is 0.01. In our study, ABGD analysis delineated a total of two MOTUs when the interspecific genetic distance (P) was 0.01, which was consistent with the results of our PTP analysis; therefore, we decided to use the delineation result under an interspecific genetic distance (P) of 0.01 as the final result of ABGD analysis in this study. In GMYC analysis, either single or multiple threshold approaches may result in the over-demarcation of species, but in our analysis, multi threshold GMYC analysis yielded relatively reliable demarcation results, as they were largely consistent with the results of ABGD and PTP analyses. Ultimately, considering the results of all the different molecular delimitation analyses, a total of 2 MOTUs were delineated, with HS and QS treated as one MOTU and YH as a separate MOTU.
Finally 102 effective sequences were obtained by amplification and sequencing., with HS and QS representing the named species
A. fasciatus. Amplification of the COI gene yielded a normalized 677 bp fragment and nucleotide composition analysis revealed an average nucleotide composition of 25.56% adenine (A), 27.62% thymine (T), 18.17% guanine (G) and 28.65% cytosine (C).
Two significant branches were found by maximum likelihood (ML) using COI-based sequencing (with the exception of outgroup) (Fig 6).
ESU delimitation
In this study, we used molecular and morphological methods for the phylogeographic analysis of
A. fasciatus from three localities. Molecular analyses showed consistent results with the ML tree and three species identification methods based on different principles, indicating two evolutionarily significant units (ESUs), in terms of both barcode spacing and differential analysis of phylogenetic processes. HS and QS are more closely related to each other according to intraspecific genetic distances and can be considered to belong to the same species. The morphological characteristics determined in this study are consistent with the results of molecular analysis and the morphological analysis revealed that HS and QS were more closely related in terms of PCs.
In determining the origin of fish based on morphology
(Fleming et al., 1994), the accuracy can reach 100%. In the current study, morphometric analysis based on geometric morphometry was applied to populations. Geometric morphometric indicators can be a useful tool for measuring fish community diversity
(Chandran et al., 2022). This is consistent with the findings of actual fish and gastropod assemblage structures
(McClain et al., 2004; Lombarte et al., 2012). In the present study, differences in overall body morphology were present in
A. fasciatus and there was significant differentiation between the fish of the two taxonomic units in the PCA. The use of morphological methods alone is more challenging for the accurate identification of fish species, highlighting the urgent need to use molecular methods in taxonomic investigations
(Rathnasuriya et al., 2021).
The use of the COI gene as a tag in DNA barcoding to identify species, particularly fish species, has recently gained increasing attention
(McCusker et al., 2013; Knebelsberger et al., 2014). The common pattern of variation observed in numerous species is one of the key grounds for choosing COI as the standard treatment barcode gene, with both marked divergence and a lack of overlap between intraspecific and interspecific genetic distances
(Hebert et al., 2003).
Of the 3 geographic locations investigated in this study, only 1 region had species with a K2P value exceeding 2%. Sequence diversity among species from two regions is less than 2%, indicating no increase in genetic variety in comparison to species in individual regions. Delineation of species based on comparisons of genetic distances within and between species is the primary focus of barcoding studies. A standard COI threshold for animal species identification has been proposed as a 10-fold sequencing difference between mean interspecific variation and mean intraspecific variation
(Shen et al., 2016). In our current studies, the ML tree and three identification methods showed two main branches: a 0 intraspecific genetic distance for QS and HS, a 4% mean intraspecific genetic distance for YH and a 2% mean interspecific genetic distance for YH. This shows that the
A. fasciatus in YH did not reach the level of interspecific variation but may exist as a subpopulation.
Systematic geography
Geographically, HS and QS are separated by the Yangtze River. Some areas in the Yangtze River’s middle and lower reaches are blocked, while QS is located in a section of the river that is not blocked
(You et al., 2017). A study conducted by
Shang et al., (2022) showed that the Yangtze River did not block their gene exchange. Surface currents may carry these species from hatching sites to nursery areas with suitable feeding conditions
(Yang et al., 2018). All fish populations that live in places with stable existing systems have a genetic predisposition to survive within geographic regions (
Al et al., 2021). The authors described the life cycles of upstream hatching areas and downstream nursery grounds and the theory’s general applicability has been demonstrated to apply to numerous fish populations in multiple geographical regions, including the North Atlantic as well as the South African coast adjoining the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans
(Hutchings et al., 2002; Kantharajan et al., 2022). Hutchings et al., (2002) discovered that the majority of pelagic and demersal fishes have evolved highly selective reproduction methods, which include fish migrating to spawn in upstream areas, where the offspring are subsequently transported by ocean currents to suitable nursery locations. HS and YH are located on both sides of Huangshan Mountain, a famous scenic area and a national tourist attraction. The results of molecular and morphological analyses were consistent, with YH on a separate branch. Thus, Huangshan Mountain, as a watershed, blocked the genetic exchange of YH with HS and QS.
Conservation implications
Our results emphasize the significance of species delimitation using an integrated framework that might improve Cyprinidae taxonomy and classification, which is critical for freshwater fish phylogeny, phylogeography, ecology, conservation and biogeography research. We believe that by using exploratory delimitation analysis, which treats a probable species as a guide and contrasts it on the basis of morphology and other methodologies, it will be possible to overcome challenges in identifying boundaries at the species or genus level in Cyprinidae taxonomy.