Amir Pourshabanan - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Faezeh Yazdani Moghaddam - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Mansour Aliabadian - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Fereshteh Ghassemzadeh - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Giovanni Rossi - Freshwater Science Group; Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed Ambientali (BiGeA); AlmaMater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Hamed Mousavi-Sabet - Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Sowmeh Sara, Guilan, Iran
Ekaterina Vasil’eva - Zoological Museum, Moscow State University, Biological Department, Moscow, Russia

The aims of this study were to testify a phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus Rutilus in the Southern Caspian Sea using sequence variation of mitochondrial and nuclear genes and to define the taxonomic status of phylogenetic clades represented in this region. Phylogenetic analysis was based on the variability of mitochondrial genes cytochrome b and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and nuclear recombination activating gene ۱ and inter-photoreceptor retinoid-binding protein. Compared to previous studies, this phylogenetic analysis included significant material from the South Caspian, both from the collected samples and from GenBank data. As a result, only two species of Rutilus were confirmed in the ichthyofauna of the studied region. The first of them corresponds to R. lacustris, therefore, materials from the South Caspian can be included in genetically identified vouchers of this species to determine its morphological diagnostic features. The second species represented separate sister phylogenetic lineage for the Pontic populations of R. frisii sensu lato. Due to the low genetic distance between the Caspian and Pontic lineages and the strong overlap of their morphological features, but previously proven divergence in separate Pleistocene refugia, the Caspian populations are classified in this study as a subspecies R. frisii kutum.

Ponto-Caspian region, Leuciscinae, Rutilus lacustris, Rutilus frisii kutum, Mitochondrial and Nuclear genes