The phylogenetic relationships of European and African Barbus and their West Asian relatives in Cyprininae remain largely unresolved. Consequently, little is known about the drivers of their evolution, including the possible association of uplifting of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) with the early divergence of the subfamily. We use complete sequence data of the mitochondrial DNA gene encoding the protein cytochrome b (Cytb) to hypothesize the phylogeny of 85 species belonging to 47 genera in the Cyprininae plus 6 species from the Leuciscinae. We employ 6 other species from Cypriniformes as outgroup taxa and estimate divergence times. Our results indicate that European Barbus sensu stricto lineage including Aulopyge shares a common ancestor with specialized and highly specialized schizothoracins and the genera Cyprinion and Scaphiodonichtys. The common ancestor appears to have originated in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) region about 19.4-17.8 Ma. Barbus sensu stricto lineage appears to have originated about 16.6-15.5 Ma. Small to medium sized African Barbus sensu lato appear to have had an Oriental origin about 19.1-15.3 Ma and are closely related to Asian Puntius. West Asian Carasobarbus lineage including large African Barbus sensu lato might have originated about 9.94 Ma, also in Oriental Realm and has a close relationship to Asian Neolissochilus and Tor. The large-sized Barbus sensu lato appear to have diverged from Carasobarbus about 7.7 Ma. Finally, the Cyprininae appear to have radiated rapidly into nine lineages and many sublineages from about 27.8 to 17.8 Ma, close to the time of the second-stage tectonic movements of the QTP. Our analyses provide evidence that the uplifting of the QTP drove early diversification of the Cyprininae. Our extensive sampling of species involving all of the important areas results in clear evolutionary scenario for the Cyprininae.

This haplotype-based case-control study investigated whether the aldosterone synthase gene (CYP11B2) might be implicated in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in Yi (226 individuals) and Hani (296 individuals) minorities of China. Four tag SNPs (rs4536, rs4545, rs3097, and rs3802230) and the K173R polymorphism were genotyped using the PCR-RFLP method. In the Hani minority, rs4536 was significantly associated with hypertension, after Bonferroni correction. H9 AGGC constructed by tag SNPs was significantly higher in hypertensives than in controls (P = 0.001). Further, we observed that haplotype AGGC remained significantly associated with male hypertension after adjustment for covariates (OR = 3.76, P = 0.002). In the Yi minority, it was found that the CYP11B2 gene was not significantly associated with hypertension. These results indicated that haplotype AGGC conferred an increased risk for hypertension in the Hani minority male. In addition, CYP11B2 may not be associated with hypertension in the Yi minority of China.