Estimated evolutionary tempo of East Asian gobionid fishes (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from mitochondrial DNA sequence data

The rapid development of molecular phylogenetic analysis has provided a new path to investigate the tempo of evolution. In this work, a rather complete molecular phylogeny of the East Asian gobionid fishes was constructed based on mtDNA cytochrome b gene sequences. Molecular clock analysis was then applied to investigate the speciation tempo of this group. The phylogenetic analysis revealed four major groups that were in agreement with previous studies. Lineage numbers plotted over time indicate that gobionid lineages increased in an exponential mode with the equation expressed as y = 87.562xe(-0.1141x), where y is the number of lineages and x represents the geological time, and 0 < x <= 30, 1 <= y <= 65. The speciation rate of gobionid fishes calculated by LASER program was inconstant. Peaks of speciation were identified and found approximately to be coincident with East Asian geological events, such as uplifts of the Tibetan plateau and formation of the monsoon system