Radiotagging a long-distance migratory Characiform fish: reproduction after surgery, tag losses, and effects in weight

Although biotelemetry studies bring useful information, tagging is a highly invasive procedure. For this reason, we assess if intracoelomic tagging alters survivorship, weight gain and/or reproductive capacity of a neotropical migratory fish. In August 2016, 60 fish were equally and randomly distributed among 3 treatments: Control (anesthesia), sham surgery (anesthesia and surgery), and true surgery (anesthesia, surgery and tagging). Surveys for weight and tag expulsion were performed periodically from surgery through spawning (November/2016), with a final survey occurring in May/2017. Mortality was higher in true surgery (25% died) and for males. Twenty percent expelled tags, and initial weight loss followed by gain were verified for all treatments. Females of all treatments spawned, and fecundity and fertility were not different. Then, future studies should consider the losses due to death and tag expulsion when defining the sample number. We also encourage further investigations about differences in mortality between sex and weight variation, as well as any other factor that leads to increase in mortality. This is the first study that investigated tagging effects in reproduction of neotropical fishes, and since the methods and tags used are not species-specific, we infer that similar effects could occur in other species.(AU)

Embora estudos de biotelemetria gerem informações úteis, processos de marcação são invasivos. Por isso, avaliamos se a marcação intracelomática altera sobrevivência, ganho de peso e/ou capacidade reprodutiva de um peixe migrador neotropical. Em agosto de 2016, 60 peixes foram distribuídos igualmente e aleatoriamente entre os tratamentos controle (anestesia), cirurgia-falsa (anestesia e cirurgia) e cirurgia-verdadeira (anestesia, cirurgia e marcação). Vistorias para pesagem e observação de expulsão de marcas foram realizadas periodicamente da cirurgia até a desova (novembro/2016), com uma vistoria final em maio/2017. A mortalidade foi maior nos peixes marcados (25% morreram) e entre machos. Vinte por cento expulsaram as marcas e, para todos os tratamentos, foi observado perda de peso inicial com posterior recuperação. Fêmeas de todos os tratamentos desovaram; fecundidade e fertilidade não foram diferentes. Novos estudos devem considerar as perdas de marcas por mortalidade e rejeição na definição do número amostral. Também recomendamos estudos que investiguem a mortalidade diferencial entre sexos e variação de peso, bem como fatores causadores de mortalidade. Este é o primeiro estudo que investigou efeitos da marcação na reprodução de peixes neotropicais e, uma vez que métodos e marcas utilizadas não são espécie-específicos, inferimos que efeitos similares podem ocorrer em outras espécies.(AU)

Leporinus elongatus (Characiformes, Anostomidae): complete mtDNA sequence of an economically important fish from the Paraná and La Plata river basins.

Leporinus elongatus is an important commercial fish found in the La Plata and Paraná River basins. Next-generation sequencing was used to sequence the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of L. elongatus. The mtDNA was assembled using the CLC Workbench software v. 9.0 and subsequently aligned to other 10 complete fish mitochondrial sequences to enable phylogenetic analysis using MEGA 7.0. The complete mtDNA molecule had 16,784 bp and its GC content was 43%. The mtDNA structure was similar to that of other vertebrates: two ribosomal RNA, 22 transfer RNA, 13 protein-coding genes, and a D-loop region containing 1115 bp. Phylogenetic analysis yielded a tree with high bootstrap value that was coherent with the current phylogeny proposed for Characiformes.

Pimelodus maculatus (Siluriformes, Pimelodidae): complete mtDNA sequence of an economically important fish from the São Francisco river basin.

Pimelodus maculatus is an important commercial fish found in the São Francisco and Paraná river basins. NGS was used to sequence the mtDNA of P. maculatus. The mtDNA was annotated and aligned with that of 25 other fish species to enable phylogenetic analysis. The complete mtDNA molecule had 16,561 bp and its GC content was 43.7%; the structure was similar to that of other vertebrates: 2 rRNA, 22 tRNA, 13 protein-coding genes, and a D-loop region containing 914 bp. Phylogenetic analysis yielded a tree with a high bootstrap coefficient that was coherent with the actual phylogeny of the species.

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Prochilodus lineatus (Characiformes, Prochilodontidae).

Prochilodus lineatus (curimba) is an important Brazilian freshwater migratory fish with substantial economic importance in fishing. The complete mitochondrial genome of P. lineatus is 16,699 bp and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and one control region (D-loop). The mtDNA of P. lineatus is the first mitogenome of the Prochilodontidae family to be fully characterized. All of the PCGs in the mtDNA use the standard ATG start codon, with the exception of Cox1 that utilizes the GTG start codon. Six of the 13 PCGs contain TAA stop codons, two contain the incomplete stop codon TA- (Atp6 and Nd6), and five contain the incomplete stop codon T- - (Nd2, Cox2, Nd3, Nd4 and Cytb).