Evolving in the highlands: the case of the Neotropical Lerma live-bearing Poeciliopsis infans (Woolman, 1894) (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae) in Central Mexico

Abstract

BackgroundVolcanic and tectonic activities in conjunction with Quaternary climate are the main events that shaped the geographical distribution of genetic variation of many lineages. Poeciliopsis infans is the only poeciliid species that was able to colonize the temperate highlands of central Mexico. We inferred the phylogenetic relationships, biogeographic history, and historical demography in the widespread Neotropical species P. infans and correlated this with geological events and the Quaternary glacial-interglacial climate in the highlands of central Mexico, using the mitochondrial genes Cytochrome b and Cytochrome oxidase I and two nuclear loci, Rhodopsin and ribosomal protein S7.ResultsPopulations of P. infans were recovered in two well-differentiated clades. The maximum genetic distances between the two clades were 3.3% for cytb, and 1.9% for coxI. The divergence of the two clades occurred ca. 2.83 Myr. Ancestral area reconstruction revealed a complex biogeographical history for P. infans. The Bayesian Skyline Plot showed a demographic decline, although more visible for clade A, and more recently showed a population expansion in the last 0.025 Myr. Finally, the habitat suitability modelling showed that during the LIG, clade B had more areas with high probabilities of presence in comparison to clade A, whereas for the LGM, clade A showed more areas with high probabilities of presence in comparisons to clade B.ConclusionsPoeciliopsis infans has had a complex evolutionary and biogeographic history, which, as in other co-distributed freshwater fishes, seems to be linked to the volcanic and tectonic activities during the Pliocene or early Pleistocene. Populations of P. infans distributed in lowlands showed a higher level of genetic diversity than populations distributed in highlands, which could be linked to more stable and higher temperatures in lowland areas. The fluctuations in population size through time are in agreement with the continuous fluctuations of the climate of central Mexico.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-018-1172-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Diversidad taxonómica alfa y beta del ensamblaje de peces continentales de la cuenca del río Ameca, México

“…Miller et al (2009) lo describieron como restringido a la parte alta. Posteriormente, Beltrán-López et al (2018) presentan registros que amplían su distribución hasta la sección media de la cuenca del río Ameca. Sin embargo, estos hallazgos deben ser tomados con cautela dado que la incertidumbre del estatus taxonómico de Poeciliopsis, particularmente al norte del área de estudio, no ha sido completamente resuelta (Mateos et al, 2002(Mateos et al, , 2019Miller et al, 2005).…”

“Colonization routes and demographic history of Chirostoma humboldtianum in the central Mexican plateau”

“…Some of the drawback of using substitution rates could explain the discrepancy observed in the estimated divergence between Río Santiago and Lerma basins of this study with secondary calibration points and the results of the phylogeographic work of Beltrán‐López et al . (2018). It is important to mention that similar divergence times to those reported in this study for the origin of C. humboldtianum have been found using substitution rates (Betancourt‐Resendes et al ., 2020; García‐Martínez et al ., 2015), which reinforces the finding that the Mesa Central has a very complex history and further studies are needed in the area.…”

“…According to Barbour (1973b), the current occurrence of C. humboldtianum in San Pedro Lagunillas represents a relict of a wider geographic area in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit. It has been postulated that El Salto de Juanacatlán, a 20 m waterfall, promoted the vicariance between the Río Grande de Santiago basin, the Chapala Lake and the Río Lerma, approximately 2.83 Ma (Beltrán‐López et al ., 2018). However, this estimation precedes by far the origin of C. humboldtianum estimated in this study (0.89; 0.30–1.63 Ma) and the age of the haplotypes present in San Pedro (at most 0.64 Ma (0.22–1.28)) (Figure 4).…”

A multilocus phylogeny of the fish genus Poeciliopsis: Solving taxonomic uncertainties and preliminary evidence of reticulation

“…The freshwater livebearing fish genus Poeciliopsis (Poeciliidae; Figure 1) has served as an invaluable study system for several evolutionary ecology questions, including unisexual reproduction and the maintenance of sex (reviewed in Schlupp & Riesch, 2011); life history (e.g., placentation) and intergenomic conflict (Jue, Foley, Reznick, O'Neill, & O'Neill, 2018;O'Neill et al, 2007;Pires, McBride, & Reznick, 2007;Reznick, Mateos, & Springer, 2002; Zúñiga-Vega, Reznick, & Johnson, 2007); and historical biogeography of Mexico and Central America (Beltrán-Lopez, Domínguez-Domínguez, Pérez-Rodríguez, Piller, & Doadrio, 2018;Larson, Scarborough, Sayre, & Johnson, 2012;Mateos, Sanjur, & Vrijenhoek, 2002). A robust phylogenetic framework of the genus would greatly enhance its usefulness for macroevolutionary research.…”