Journal Article
A new cave population of Astyanax mexicanus from Northern Sierra de El Abra, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Miranda-Gamboa, R., Espinasa, L., Verde-Ramírez, M.A., Hernández-Lozano, J., Lacaille, J.L., Espinasa, M., Ornelas-García, C.P.
Record Number:
6115
Year:
2023
Journal:
Subterranean Biology
Pages:
95-117
Volume:
45
Notes:
Copyright Ramses Miranda-Gamboa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
Abstract:
The Astyanax genus represents an extraordinary example of phenotypic evolution, being their most extreme
examples the blind and depigmented morphs, which have evolved from independent surface-dwelling
lineages. Among cave organisms, Astyanax cavefish is a prominent model system to study regressive
evolution. Before this study, 34 cave populations were known for the Astyanax genus to be inhabited by
the cave morph. The majority of those cave populations are distributed in Northeast México, at the Sierra
Madre Oriental (32 cavefish), in three main areas: Sierra de Guatemala, Sierra de El Abra, and Micos, and
two in the Balsas basin in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. In the present study, we describe a new cave population
found 4.5 km Southward of Pachón cave, the most northern cave population known for the Sierra
de El Abra limestone. El Refugio cave is a resurgence with a mixed population of fish with different levels
of troglomorphism, and surface fish, resembling other hybrid populations within the Sierra de El Abra.
Based on a mitochondrial DNA characterization of the 16S ribosomal DNA sequence, we could identify
the mitochondrial lineage of this population, which was placed closely related to the “New Lineage”,
sharing haplotypes with the surface (i.e. Arroyo Lagartos) and Pachón populations, instead of with the cave populations from Central Sierra de El Abra (e.g. Tinaja cave). El Refugio cave population gives additional
evidence of the intricate history of this system, where migration, drift, and selection have shaped
the evolution of the cave morphs through the independent episodes of the Astyanax mexicanus history.
Keywords
Astyanax, cavefish, regressive evolution, repeated evolution, Sierra de El Abra
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species: