A new cave locality for Astyanax cavefish in Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Espinasa, Luis; Legendre, Laurent; Fumey, Julien; Blin, Maryline; Rétaux, Sylvie; Espinasa, Monika

doi:10.3897/subtbiol.26.26643

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…"Chiquitita" cave should not be confused with "Chica" cave. Chiquitita is the most recently discovered cave with a cavefish population (Espinasa et al 2018), found south of Chica cave, in the town of El Pujal, at the southernmost tip of Sierra de El Abra.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeographical convergence between Astyanax cavefish and mysid shrimps in the Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Kopp¹,

Avasthi²,

Espinasa³

2018

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The Sierra de El Abra is a long (120 km) and narrow (10 km) karstic area in northeastern Mexico. Some studies have suggested independent evolutionary histories for the multiple populations of blind cavefish Astyanaxmexicanus that inhabit this mountain range, despite the hydrological connections that may exist across the Sierra. Barriers between caves could have prevented stygobitic populations to migrate across caves, creating evolutionary significant units localized in discrete biogeographical areas of the Sierra de El Abra. The goal of the present study was to evaluate if there is a correspondence in phylogeographical patterns between Astyanax cavefish and the stygobitic mysid shrimp Spelaeomysisquinterensis. Astyanax mtDNA and mysid histone H3 DNA sequences showed that in both species, cave populations in central El Abra, such as Tinaja cave, are broadly different from other cave populations. This phylogeographical convergence supports the notion that the central Sierra de El Abra is a biogeographical zone with effective barriers for either cave to cave or surface to cave gene flow, which have modulated the evolutionary history across species of its aquatic stygobitic community.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeographical convergence between Astyanax cavefish and mysid shrimps in the Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Kopp¹,

Avasthi²,

Espinasa³

2018

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“…We included one cavefish population (Pachón) from the Sierra de El Abra, a mountain range running north to south along the eastern margin of the Sierra Madre Oriental, a karstic region in northeastern Mexico ( Elliott, 2016 ). El Abra is considered as one of the highest flowing karst springs worldwide ( Gary & Sharp, 2006 ) and the presence of A. mexicanus cavefish populations have been reported in at least 30 caves in the region ( Elliott, 2016 ; Espinasa et al, 2018 ). Additionally, we included two surface populations located at the vicinity of El Abra, between the Sierras Las Crucitas and Sierra de la Colmena (San Luis Potosí, Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome differences between river-dwelling and cave-adapted populations of the fishAstyanax mexicanus(De Filippi, 1853)

Ornelas‐García

Pajares

Sosa-Jiménez

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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Symbiotic relationships between host and microbiome can play a major role in local adaptation. Previous studies with freshwater organisms have shown that microbiome performs numerous important biochemical functions for the host, playing a key role in metabolism, physiology or health. Experimental studies in fish groups have found an effect of enzymatic activity of gut microbiota on a variety of metabolic processes. The goal of this study was to compare stomach microbiome from cave and surface Astyanax mexicanus, in order to evaluate the potential response of microbiota to contrasting environmental conditions and physiological adaptations of the host. Stomach microbiota was obtained from three different populations: Pachón cave, and two surface rivers (Rascón and Micos rivers). The stomach microbiome was analyzed using the Ion 16S Metagenomic kit considering seven variable regions: V2, V3, V4, V6-7, V8 and V9. A high diversity was observed across samples, including 16 phyla, 120 families and 178 genera. Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Betaproteobacteria were the most abundant phyla across the samples. Although the relative abundance of the core OTUs at genus level were highly contrasting among populations, we did not recover differences in stomach microbiome between contrasting habitats (cave vs. surface rivers). Rather, we observed a consistent association between β-diversity and dissolved oxygen concentration in water. Therefore, and unexpectedly, the microbiota of A. mexicanus is not linked with the contrasting conditions of the habitat considered here but is related to water parameters.

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“…Cueva Chiquitita is inhabited by surface, troglomorphic, and hybrid fish. It is also likely that there is a continuous underwater passage between Cueva Chiquitita and one of the most cited Astyanax cave localities, Cueva Chica [6,8]. Subsurface hydrologic connections allow for both troglomorphic and surface fish to migrate between El Abra cave localities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is a low-lying area that has little potential for deep caves. Most caves were explored in the 1970's, and cavers at that time may have put less effort into describing shallow caves that would nevertheless be of biological interest [6,8]. Supporting evidence for the possibility of new discoveries was the aforementioned recent discovery of Cueva Chiquitita in this area [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of Two New Astyanax Cavefish Localities Leads to Further Understanding of the Species Biogeography

et al. 2020

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The Astyanax species complex has two morphs: a blind, depigmented morph which inhabits caves in México and an eyed, pigmented surface-dwelling morph. The eyed morph can also be found in a few caves, sometimes hybridizing with the cave morph. This species complex has arguably become the most prominent model system among cave organisms for the study of evolutionary development and genomics. Before this study, 32 caves were known to be inhabited by the cave morph, 30 of them within the El Abra region. The purpose of this study was to conduct new surveys of the area and to assess some unconfirmed reports of caves presumably inhabited by troglomorphic fish. We describe two new localities, Sótano del Toro #2 and Sótano de La Calera. These two caves comprise a single hydrologic system together with the previously described cave of Sótano del Toro. The system is inhabited by a mixed population of troglomorphic, epigeomorphic, and presumably hybrid fish. Furthermore, Astyanax cavefish and the mysid shrimp Spelaeomysis quinterensis show a phylogeographic convergence that supports the notion that the central Sierra de El Abra is a biogeographical region that has influenced the evolutionary history of its aquatic community across species. The presumptive location of the boundaries of this biogeographical region are identified.

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A new cave locality for Astyanax cavefish in Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Cited by 26 publications

References 13 publications

Phylogeographical convergence between Astyanax cavefish and mysid shrimps in the Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Phylogeographical convergence between Astyanax cavefish and mysid shrimps in the Sierra de El Abra, Mexico

Microbiome differences between river-dwelling and cave-adapted populations of the fishAstyanax mexicanus(De Filippi, 1853)

Discovery of Two New Astyanax Cavefish Localities Leads to Further Understanding of the Species Biogeography

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