Morphologic and genetic variation of Astyanax mexicanus in the Atlantic slope of Mexico

Authors: Daniel A. Sepulveda, Héctor Espinosa-Pérez, Francisco J. García de León

Year: 2008 (xl)

Abstract

The species complex belonging to the Astyanax genus, or Mexican Tetras, whose distribution in Mexico, is a group that has many taxonomic problems, despite this, several works, osteological, morphological and genetic recognize two complexes with distribution in central Mexico, a northern group assignable to Astyanax mexicanus and a southern group assignable to Astyanax aeneus. There is also a species for Yucatan, A. altoir. Along the literature on this genra, they are different populations of forms not assigned to a species, so much for there distribution in the north as the south. One of these not described forms that appears in the literature of the genus is that population who inhabits in Cuatro Cienegas. For the following study there was realized a genetic preliminary analysis using seven localities, one of them from the population of Cuatro Cienegas, the marker used was microsatellites, Results were obtained for two loci, Ast01, in which nine alleles was observed, with a heterozygosity observed of 0.981, and Ast09, that presented eight alleles, with a heterozygosity of 0.603. A preliminary analysis of these results allows us to infer that the population from Cuatro Cienegas has an evolutionary process different from the rest of the studied localities. As response to these preliminary results, one presents the study of the morphometry of the species applying the model of Truss Network, for the same localities of the genetic study.