Variable Eyes Degeneration of the Cave Carp Sinocyclocheilus bicornutus (Cyprinidae) from Guizhou Province, Southwest China

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Abstract

Sinocyclocheilus bicornutus is a valid cave–dwelling cyprinid species with small eyes from Guizhou province, southwest China, the close relatives of which are also small eyed and obligate cave–dwelling. Our expeditions in 2015 to 2017 found the intraspecific variability of eye degeneration based on total 114 specimens collected from one lighted and two dark caves with an altitude of about 1350 m. Three morphotypes, the small eyed, the rudimentary eyed, and the eyeless, co-occurred in each cave. The eye size closely correlates with the standard length SL in the lighted cave, while the correlation of the eye size and SL become loosely related in the dark caves which associated with increased proportion of significantly degenerative eyed morphotypes. It implies that the developmental retardation occurs in the darkness and remains in adult stage. The variable eye-reduced populations of S. bicornutus provide an interesting model to address the involvement of potential epigenetic mechanisms with the regressive evolution of cavefish.

About the authors

H. Wen

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China; College of science, Qiongtai Normal University, Haikou, China

Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян; Китай, Хайкоу

Y. Wang

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян

X. Yang

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян

S. Yan

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян

T. Luo

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян

Y. He

Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Email: heyou@sinap.ac.cn
Китай, Шанхай

J. Zhou

School of Life Science, School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China

Author for correspondence.
Email: zhoujiang@ioz.ac.cn
Китай, Гуйян

References


Copyright (c) 2023 Х. Вен, Я. Ванг, С. Янг, Ш. Ян, Т. Луо, Ё. Хе, Ц. Джоу

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