Published October 1, 2026
| Version v1
Journal article
Open
Taxonomic revision and phylogenetic study of the tribe Gobionini in China (Actinopteri, Cypriniformes, Gobionidae), with the discussion on the generic character of the genus Mesogobio
Authors/Creators
- 1. State Key Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- 2. State Key Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China|Shanghai Universities Key Laboratory of Marine Animal Taxonomy and Evolution, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China
Description
The tribe Gobionini, comprising three genera, is widely distributed across Eurasia, with China representing one of the distribution hotspots. Despite numerous species descriptions over the past decades, a comprehensive taxonomic study of this tribe is still lacking. Both morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analysis based on Cytochrome-b gene have been included in this study. Our results indicate that the previously reported species diversity within this tribe may have been overestimated, with 12 species from two genera identified in China: Mesogobio lachneri, Gobio cynocephalus, G. guentheri, G. soldatovi, G. coriparoides, G. rivuloides, G. macrocephalus, G. tenuicorpus, G. acutipinnatus, G. huanghensis, G. tumenensis, and G. fushunensis. The diagnostic key for separating Gobio and Mesogobio is revised based on swim bladder morphology. In the genus Gobio, the swim bladder is well developed, with a total length approximately two-thirds that of the coelom. In contrast, the swim bladder of the genus Mesogobio is reduced, with a total length of approximately half that of the coelom. A diagnostic key to the species distributed in China is also provided.
Files
ZK_article_202134.pdf
Linked records
Additional details
References
- Antonov A, Barabanschikov E, Zolotukhin S, Mikheev I, Shapovalov M (2019) Fish of the Amur River. Apelsin Publishing House, Vladivostok, 317 pp.
- Bănărescu P (1961) Weitere systematische Studien über die Gattung Gobio (Pisces, Cyprinidae), insbesondere im Donaubecken. Věstnik Československé Společnosti Zoologické 25: 318–346.
- Bănărescu P, Nalbant T (1964) Nouveaux goujons des genres Gobio et Squalidus (Pisces, Cyprinidae). Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Série 2): 457–468.
- Bănărescu P, Nalbant T (1966) A new gudgeon of the genus Gobio from Shansi (Pisces, Cyprinidae). American Museum Novitates No. 2275: 1–9.
- Bănărescu P, Nalbant T (1973) Pisces, Teleostei. Cyprinidae (Gobioninae). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 304 pp.
- Berg L (1914) Faune de la Russie et des pays limitrophes. Poissons, Marsipobranchii et Pisces. Volume III. Imperatorskii Akademii Nauk, Petrograd, 337–704 pp.
- Bogutskaya N, Naseka A (1997) Cyclostomata and Fishes of Khanka Lake Drainage Area (Amur River basin): An Annotated Check-List with Comments on Taxonomy and Zoogeography of the Region. St. Petersburg, 89 pp.
- Chen JX, Xu QT, Wang XT, Fang SM, Song SL (1987) FIshes in Qin-ling Mountain Area. Science Press, Beijing, 260 pp.
- Cuvier G (1816) Le Règne Animal Distribué D'après son Organisation Pour Servir de Base à L'histoire Naturelle des Animaux et D'introduction à L'anatomie Comparée (Vol. 2). Paris, 532 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.130093
- Dybowski B (1869) Vorläufige Mittheilungen über die Fischfauna des Ononflusses und des Ingoda in Transbaikalien. Verhandlungen der kaiserlich-königlichen zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 19: 945–958.
- Fang YT, Sun ZX, Zhao YH (2025) Taxonomic revision on the Gobio group in the Yellow River drainage, with discussion on the validity of the genus Acanthogobio (Cypriniformes, Gobionidae). Zoosystematics and Evolution 101: 661–679. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.144134
- Fricke R, Eschmeyer W, Van der Laan R (2026) Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Genera, Species, Reference. http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp [accessed 10 Aug 2026]
- Hammer O, Harper D, Ryan P (2001) PAST: Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4: 1–9.
- Herzenstein S (1892) Ichthyologische Bemerkungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mélanges Biologiques, tirés du Bulletin physico-mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Pétersbourg 13: 219–235.
- Hwang D, Lee W, Lee J (2014) Complete mitochondrial genome of the freshwater fish, Acanthorhodeus macropterus (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae). Mitochondrial DNA 25(1): 11–12. https://doi.org/10.3109/19401736.2013.775265
- Jelić D, Jelić M, Žutinić P, Šimunović I, Zupančič P, Naseka A (2018) Distribution of endangered Italian gudgeon Romanogobio benacensis (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae, Gobioninae) with remarks on distinguishing morphological characters. ZooKeys 729: 103–127. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.729.20615
- Kalyaanamoorthy S, Minh B, Wong T, Von Haeseler A, Jermiin L (2017) ModelFinder: Fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods 14: 587–589. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285
- Kim K, Song H, Kim Y, Park J, Bang I (2021) Complete mitochondrial genome of the Korean endemic species Coreoleuciscus aeruginosus holotype from Korea (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae). Mitochondrial DNA B Resources 6(3): 1214–1215. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2021.1902415
- Kimura M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution 16: 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731581
- Kottelat M, Persat H (2005) The genus Gobio in France, with redescription of G. gobio and description of two new species (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Cybium: International Journal of Ichthyology 29: 211–234. https://doi.org/10.26028/cybium/2005-293-001
- Kumar S, Stecher G, Li M, Knyaz C, Tamura K (2018) MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution 35: 1547–1549. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096
- Li SZ (2015) Fishes of the Yellow River. The Sueichan Press, Taiwan, 640 pp.
- Li SZ, Dai DY, Zhang SY, Ma GZ, He ZW, Gao SD (1966) Notes on a collection of fishes from North Sinkiang, China. Acta Zoologica Sinica 18(1): 41–56.
- Li YH, Cao K, Fu CZ (2018) Ten fish mitogenomes of the tribe Gobionini (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae: Gobioninae). Mitochondrial DNA B Resources 3(2): 803–804. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2018.1467236
- Luo YL, Yue PQ, Chen YY (1977) Gobioninae. In: Wu H-W (Ed.) The Cyprinid Fishes of China Vol2. Shanghai Science and Technology Press, Shanghai, 439–549.
- Liu HZ, Yang JQ, Tang QY (2010) Estimated evolutionary tempo of East Asian gobionid fishes (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Chinese Science Bulletin 55: 1501–1510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-3159-7
- Men'shikov MI (1939) On the ichthyofauna of Lake Marka-Kul'. Uchenye zapiski Permskogo universiteta 3(2): 119–142. [In Russian, with English summary]
- Mori T (1930) On the fresh water fishes from the Tumen River, Korea, with description of new species. Journal of the Chosen Natural History Society No. 11: 1–11.
- Mori T (1934) The Fresh Water Fishes of Jehol. Report of the First Scientific Expedition to Manchoukuo. Tokyo, 61 pp.
- Naseka A (1996) Comparative study on the vertebral column in the Gobioninae (Cyprinidae, Pisces) with special reference to its systematics. Publicaciones Especiales Instituto Español de Oceanografía: 149–167.
- Ni XM, Chen Y, Deng GM, Fu CZ (2023) Pleistocene landscape dynamics drives lineage divergence of a temperate freshwater fish Gobio rivuloides in coastal drainages of Northern China. Genes 14: 2146. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14122146
- Nichols J (1925) Some Chinese fresh-water fishes. American Museum Novitates No. 181: 1–8.
- Perea S, Böhme M, Zupančič P, Freyhof J, Šanda R, Özuluğ M, Abdoli A, Doadrio I (2010) Phylogenetic relationships and biogeographical patterns in Circum-Mediterranean subfamily Leuciscinae (Teleostei, Cyprinidae) inferred from both mitochondrial and nuclear data. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 265. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-10-265
- Qi DL, Yang C (2009) Cloning of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of Gobio huanghensis and its phylogenetic relationships in genus Gobio. Journal of Qinghai University (Nature Science) 27(3): 38–42.
- Ronquist F, Teslenko M, Van Der Mark P, Ayres D, Darling A, Höhna S, Larget B, Liu L, Suchard M, Huelsenbeck J (2012) MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic biology 61: 539–542. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029
- Sabaj M (2020) Codes for Natural History Collections in Ichthyology and Herpetology. Copeia 108: 593–669. https://doi.org/10.1643/ASIHCODONS2020
- Sun YT, Wang QL, Ren JF, Yang SB (2020) Identification and phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial genome of Hemibarbus labeo BML (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae). Mitochondrial DNA B Resources 5(3): 2655–2657. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2020.1778570
- Swindell S, Plasterer T (1997) SEQMAN. In: Swindell S (Ed.) Sequence Data Analysis Guidebook. Springer New York, Totowa, 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-358-9:75
- Tan M, Armbruster J (2018) Phylogenetic classification of extant genera of fishes of the order Cypriniformes (Teleostei: Ostariophysi). Zootaxa 4476: 6–39. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4476.1.4
- Tang K, Agnew M, Chen WJ, Raley M, Sado T, Schneider L, Yang L, Bart H, He SP, Liu HZ, Saitoh K, Simons A, Wood R, Mayden R (2011) Phylogeny of the gudgeons (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Gobioninae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 61: 103–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.05.022
- Tchang TL, Shaw TH (1931) Preliminary notes on the cyprinoid fishes of Hopei Province. Bulletin of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology (Zoological Series) 2: 283–296.
- Vasil'eva E, Mamilov N, Sharakhmetov S (2023) Gudgeon from the Emel River and problems of the gudgeon taxonomy (Genus Gobio, Cyprinidae) in Kazakhstan and Siberia. Journal of Icthyology 63: 499–513. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0042875223050156
- Xiao WH, Zhang YP, Liu HZ (2001) Molecular systematics of Xenocyprinae (Teleostei: Cyprinidae): Taxonomy, biogeography, and coevolution of a special group restricted in East Asia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 18: 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1006/mpev.2000.0879
- Xie JM, Chen YR, Cai GJ, Cai RL, Hu Z, Wang H (2023) Tree Visualization By One Table (tvBOT): A web application for visualizing, modifying and annotating phylogenetic trees. Nucelic Acids Research 51: W587–W592. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad359
- Xie YH, Li WK, Xie H (2007) Freshwater Fishes in Northeast Region of China. Liaoning Science and Technology Press, Shenyang, 529 pp.
- Yang JQ, He SP, Freyhof J, Witte K, Liu HZ (2006) The phylogenetic relationships of the Gobioninae (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences. Hydrobiologia 553: 255–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750–005-1301-3
- Yue PQ (1998) Gobioninae. In: Chen YY, Chu XL, Luo YL, Chen YR, Liu HZ, He MG (Eds) Fauna Sinica. Osteichthyes. Cypriniformes II. Science Press, Beijing, 232–389. [In Chinese with English summary]
- Zhang CG, Zhao YH, Xing YC, Zhou W, Tang WQ (2016) Species diversity and distribution of inland fishes in China. Science Press, Beijing, 284 pp.
- Zhao YH, Sun ZX (2021) Standard of morphological measurements and description for Cyprinidae, based on an example of Gobionine fishes (Teleostei: Cypriniformes). Bio-101: e1010622. https://doi.org/10.21769/bioprotoc.1010622
- Zheng BS, Huang HM, Zhang YL, Dai DY (1980) Fishes of the Tumen River. Jilin People's Publishing House, Changchun, 111 pp.