ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
This article is part of the Research TopicInsights in Evolutionary and Population Genetics: 2025View all 4 articles
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Three Schizothorax curvilabiatus Populations in the Yarlung Zangbo River based on Mitochondrial Genes
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Fisheries Science, Tibet Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Xizang 850000, China, Lhasa, China
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Schizothorax curvilabiatus is a commercially important freshwater fish species inhabiting the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River. In recent decades, the fishery resources of S. curvilabiatus have been severely depleted due to the impact of human activities, resulting in limited data on their genetic characteristics. The primary objective of this study was to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of S. curvilabiatus. Herein, three mitochondrial DNA markers (Cyt b, D-loop, and COI) were employed to analyze the sequences of 100 samples collected from three natural populations in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River(35-Motuo Population(MT Population), 30-Palong Population(PL Population), 35-Chayu Population(CY Population)). The overall haplotype diversity index (Hd) and nucleotide diversity index (Pi) for these sequences were as follows: 0.945 and 0.0111 (Cyt b), 0.951 and 0.01046 (D-loop), and 0.889 and 0.00450 (COI). Notably, the PL population exhibited the lowest genetic diversity across all three markers. The genetic distance among the populations ranged from 0.00864 to 0.0134 (Cyt b), 0.0116 to 0.0134 (D-loop), and 0.00238 to 0.00578 (COI). Genetic differentiation indices (FST) and gene flow (Nm) indicated significant differentiation between the PL population and both the MT and CY populations. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that genetic variation within populations (88.59%, 83.72%, 91.58%) was significantly greater than that observed among populations (11.41%, 16.28%, 8.42%). Both the NJ phylogenetic tree and haplotype network analysis demonstrated that the MT population clusters with the PL and CY populations, indicating a distant genetic relationship between PL and CY populations and reflecting a distinct geographical lineage pattern. In summary, while S. curvilabiatus exhibits substantial genetic diversity, the genetic diversity within individual populations is relatively low. This study provides insights into the genetic background of the germplasm resources of S. curvilabiatus, offering valuable information for the conservation and sustainable development of these genetic resources.
Keywords: genetic diversity, Genetic structure, Geographical population, Mitochondrial gene, Schizothorax curvilabiatus
Received: 09 Nov 2025; Accepted: 01 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qi, Kai, Can and Chi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhang Chi
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