The Phylogenetic Analysis of the Genus Barbus Cuvier and Cloquet, 1816 (Actinoptergi: Cyprinidae) Using Cytb Gene Sequences

For a long time, all the barbells fishes have been considered as a single genus, BarbusCuvier and Cloquet, 1816, based on morphological characteristics. Differentmolecular markers revealed that these fishes are belonged to genus- complex group,therefore, re-evaluation of their taxonomic status is needed. In this study, thephylogenetic relationship of Barbus complex genus group was investigated usingsequences of the cytochrome b gene available in the gene bank (NCBI). Thesequences were aligned using Mega 5.0 and Bioedit softwares, and maximumlikelihoodanalysis was conducted using Sewview 4 package. Tree topology showedthat Cytb nucleotides can differentiate the studied taxa and the studied species arebelonged to six clades including Luciobarbus, Barbus, Tor, 46TMesopotamichthys.,Labeobarbus and Carasobarbus. Based on the tree topology, Kosswigobarbus is veryclose to Carasobarbus and may be not considered as a valid genus.