Taxonomic implications for the ripus, Coregonus albula infrasp. ladogensis from mitochondrial DNA analysis

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence (223 bp) of the part of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (CR) was determined in a formalin-preserved specimen of ripus, Coregonus albula infrasp. ladogensis. This fish, a representative of introduced coregonid stock that is now extinct in Poland, was caught in 1962 in Lake Radomno in northeastern Poland. The obtained CR sequence was compared to that of other coregonid species, such as European whitefish (C. lavaretus), vendace (C. albula), peled (C. peled) as well as North American lake cisco (C. artedi) and Arctic cisco (C. autumnalis). The results revealed that the ripus sequence was highly similar to that of both cisco species. Phylogenetic analysis with Bayesian inference placed the individual ripus sequence into the ciscoes’ clade with a high clade credibility value f(t|CR) = 0.86. The results improve the knowledge of the taxonomic position of Coregonus albula infrasp. ladogensis, which occurs naturally in Lake Ladoga.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Dr hab. Paweł Brzuzan, prof. UWM, Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski, Katedra Biotechnologii w Ochronie Środowiska, ul. Oczapowskiego 5, 10-957 Olsztyn, tel./fax: + 48 89 5234772;
e-mail: brzuzan@uwm.edu.pl