Sj. Slobodyanyuk et al., THE EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS OF 2 FAMILIES OF COTTOID FISHES OF LAKE BAIKAL (EAST SIBERIA) AS SUGGESTED BY ANALYSIS OF MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA, Journal of molecular evolution, 40(4), 1995, pp. 392-399
Fragments of mtDNA genes Cyt B, ATPase 6, and ATPase 8 of six cottoid
fishes species of Lake Baikal (East Siberia) were amplified and sequen
ced. In addition mtDNAs of the same fish were subjected to restriction
analysis. The data obtained were used to con struct phylogenetic tree
s. The topology of the ATPase tree differs from those of the Res (rest
riction) and Cyt B trees. Clustering of species within the trees confi
rms the viewpoint of Taliev (1955, Baicalian Sculpins (Cottoidei)) acc
ording to which Baikalian cottoids originate from two ancestral forms.
The times of branching obtained do not confirm the existing viewpoint
according to which the two golomyankas (Comephorus baicalensis and Co
mephorus dybowskii) are pre-Baikal (Myocene) relicts: these two specie
s may have originated 1.2-1.8 million years ago in Baikal, and they se
em to represent an example of rapid morphological evolution which resu
lted in the formation of a new family.