Phylogenetic analysis of the species belong to genus Gobio Cuvier, 1816 distributed in Turkey's inland waters

The genus Gobio Cuvier, 1816 represented by 15 species in Turkey inland waters an important group for Turkey biodiversity. It has a wide distribution in the Black Sea, Marmara, North Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean (only Göksu River) and Central Anatolia. In spite of the increase in number of Gobio species in Anatolia in recent years, the taxonomic uncertainties in the genus have not yet been exactly resolved. This study aims to determine the phylogenetic relationships of Gobio species, to explain the historical biogeography and to eliminate the complexity in taxa with genetic data. The mitochondrial 16SrRNA (1693 bp), COI (1551 bp) and Cyt b (1042 bp) genes were sequenced for a total of 333 individuals 15 species of the genus Gobio. In addition, combined data of three genes were used in the analyzes. As a result of haplotype analysis, 43 for 16S rRNA, 41 for COI, 69 for Cyt b and 107 haplotypes for combined data were identified. Based on the MtDNA genes, intraspecies and interspecies genetic distances were calculated according to the K2P distance model. The phylogenetic analyzes were performed according to NJ, MP, ML and BI methods. The haplotype network trees were created according to the median-joining method. The K2P genetic distance results show that Anatolian Gobio species are clustered into three groups as Northwest, Central and Northeast. Phylogenetic and haplotype network trees results revealed that the Anatolian Gobio species belongs to three well-supported groups in accordance with their geographic distribution. Northeastern group comprises only one species from Western Transcaucasia, northwestern group species ranging from Eastern Thrace to Western Anatolia and Central group species found in Central Anatolia. The estimated divergence times between the three Gobio groups, calculated using a conventional 1% rate of mutation for a fish mitochondrial Cyt b gene per million years, coincide with the late Miocene period in which the tectonic uplift of Anatolia and global climate fluctuations occurred.