Genetic characterization and conservation status of pupfish in River Springs, California

Authors: Yongjiu Chen, Steve Parmenter, Frank Pezold

Year: 2009 (xli)

Abstract

Pupfish (Cyprinodon spp) are a group of short-lived species found in discrete aquatic systems across the southwest desert of North America. These fishes possess extraordinary tolerance of environmental variables including pH, salinity, temperature, and parasite community. An unidentified pupfish population occurs at River Springs in eastern California, presumably derived from Salt Creek pupfish (C.salinus salinus) and Amargosa River pupfish (C.nevadensis amargosae), introduced by RR Miller in 1940. River Springs and each of the habitats occupied by the two putative ancestral species differ in elevation, temperature, salinity and biotic factors. We investigated the contribution of each ancestral population to the extant River Springs fish using DNA sequence variation in a mitochondrial (cytochrome b) and a nuclear (S7 ribosomal protein intron 1) gene. Pupfish in River Springs share a high sequence similarity with Amargosa River pupfish, and differ from Salt Creek pupfish by diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. The River Springs pupfish population may be eliminated as part of a restoration project. Robust specimen collections from River Springs are being curated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History for their potential future scientific value.