Allozymic Polymorphism and Phylogeny of the Family
Channichthyidae
Olivier Clemene· 2 , Catherine Ozouf-Costaz 2 , Guillaume Lecointre 2 and
Patrick Berrebi 1
lLaboratoire Genome et Populations, UPR 9060 du CNRS, Universite
Montpellier II, cc 63, place E. Bataillon, 35095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
2Laboratoire d'Ichtyologie, CNRS GDR 1005, Museum National d'Histoire
Naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Introduction
The suborder Notothenioidei represents a moderate radiation of teleosts
into various niches, mostly at less than 500 m depths, and adaptation to
subzero temperatures [1,2]. The decrease of temperature of the Antarctic
continent 38 million years ago (Ma) provoked important specIes
extinction and the dominance of No to thenoi dei.
Among the Notothenioidei, all members of the icefish family
Channichthyidae (11 genera and 15 species) are totally endemic to the
Antarctic and subAntarctic regions and lack hemoglobin. The phylogeny
established for this family, based on morphological characters [3], is not
completely in agreement with the phenogram established by
Voskoboinikova [4] on the basis of developmental features.
A previous genetic study [5] of the family Nototheniidae used
allozymes for studying relationships within species of the
TrematomuslPagothenia complex. In contrast, Duhamel et al. [6], with
the primary objective of assessing genetic variation and divergence
between populations of exploited species in the subAntarctic zone, have
shown that Notothenia rossii displays a rather low allozymic
polymorphism (H = 0.03) and that Champsocephalus gunnari is
completely monomorphic.
In this study, we envisaged the use of allozymes to investigate species,
interrelationships within the family Channichthyidae. This is the primary
objective of this paper. Since it was possible to detect genetic divergence
between samples collected in different geographic sectors within two
species, Neopagetopsis ionah and Chionodraco myersi, that kind of
G. di Prisco, E. Pisano, A. Clarke (Eds)
Fishes of Antarctica. A biological overview
© Springer-Verlag Italia 1998
Channichthyidae
Olivier Clemene· 2 , Catherine Ozouf-Costaz 2 , Guillaume Lecointre 2 and
Patrick Berrebi 1
lLaboratoire Genome et Populations, UPR 9060 du CNRS, Universite
Montpellier II, cc 63, place E. Bataillon, 35095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
2Laboratoire d'Ichtyologie, CNRS GDR 1005, Museum National d'Histoire
Naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Introduction
The suborder Notothenioidei represents a moderate radiation of teleosts
into various niches, mostly at less than 500 m depths, and adaptation to
subzero temperatures [1,2]. The decrease of temperature of the Antarctic
continent 38 million years ago (Ma) provoked important specIes
extinction and the dominance of No to thenoi dei.
Among the Notothenioidei, all members of the icefish family
Channichthyidae (11 genera and 15 species) are totally endemic to the
Antarctic and subAntarctic regions and lack hemoglobin. The phylogeny
established for this family, based on morphological characters [3], is not
completely in agreement with the phenogram established by
Voskoboinikova [4] on the basis of developmental features.
A previous genetic study [5] of the family Nototheniidae used
allozymes for studying relationships within species of the
TrematomuslPagothenia complex. In contrast, Duhamel et al. [6], with
the primary objective of assessing genetic variation and divergence
between populations of exploited species in the subAntarctic zone, have
shown that Notothenia rossii displays a rather low allozymic
polymorphism (H = 0.03) and that Champsocephalus gunnari is
completely monomorphic.
In this study, we envisaged the use of allozymes to investigate species,
interrelationships within the family Channichthyidae. This is the primary
objective of this paper. Since it was possible to detect genetic divergence
between samples collected in different geographic sectors within two
species, Neopagetopsis ionah and Chionodraco myersi, that kind of
G. di Prisco, E. Pisano, A. Clarke (Eds)
Fishes of Antarctica. A biological overview
© Springer-Verlag Italia 1998