ИСТИНА

Freshwaters of the Far East region of Russia are represented by continental river systems of the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk as well as the Sakhalin Island water bodies; the Amur River is the main river system of this region also covering territories of Northern China and Mongolia. Three species of genus Cobitis, namely C. melanoleuca, C. lutheri, and C. choii, and two Misgurnus species, M. mohoity, and M. nikolskyi, are recorded from the Far East of Russia. All species are restricted to the East Asia except C. melanoleuca that is widespread across European waters and represented in the Far East by nominal subspecies. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies demonstrated East Asian loaches of the genera Cobitis and Misgurnus as non-monophyletic groups. In this study, we sequence mitochondrial and nuclear genes of all loaches from both genera from Far Eastern Russia to infer their phylogenetic relationships. Molecular phylogenies confirm mitochondrial introgression of some species of Cobitis and Misgurnus, and non-monophyly of both genera. In both genera, all the species have close relationships with Asian cobitid species. Besides, molecular data revealed intraspecific structure of some species and allowed to define their distribution patterns.