Ontogeny of electric organ and electric organ discharge in Campylomormyrus rhynchophorus (Teleostei: Mormyridae).

The aim of this study was a longitudinal description of the ontogeny of the adult electric organ of Campylomormyrus rhynchophorus which produces as adult an electric organ discharge of very long duration (ca. 25 ms). We could indeed show (for the first time in a mormyrid fish) that the electric organ discharge which is first produced early during ontogeny in 33-mm-long juveniles is much shorter in duration and has a different shape than the electric organ discharge in 15-cm-long adults. The change from this juvenile electric organ discharges into the adult electric organ discharge takes at least a year. The increase in electric organ discharge duration could be causally linked to the development of surface evaginations, papillae, at the rostral face of the electrocyte which are recognizable for the first time in 65-mm-long juveniles and are most prominent at the periphery of the electrocyte.

Evidence for Non-neutral Evolution in a Sodium Channel Gene in African Weakly Electric Fish (Campylomormyrus, Mormyridae).

Voltage-gated sodium channels, Nav1, play a crucial role in the generation and propagation of action potentials and substantially contribute to the shape of their rising phase. The electric organ discharge (EOD) of African weakly electric fish (Mormyroidea) is the sum of action potentials fired from all electrocytes of the electric organ at the same time and hence voltage-gated sodium channels are one factor-together with the electrocyte's morphology and innervation pattern-that determines the properties of these EODs. Due to the fish-specific genome duplication, teleost fish possess eight copies of sodium channel genes (SCN), which encode for Nav1 channels. In mormyroids, SCN4aa is solely expressed in the electrocytes of the adult electric organ. In this study, we compared entire SCN4aa sequences of six species of the genus Campylomormyrus and identified nonsynonymous substitutions among them. SCN4aa in Campylomormyrus exhibits a much higher evolutionary rate compared to its paralog SCN4ab, whose expression is not restricted to the electric organ. We also found evidence for strong positive selection on the SCN4aa gene within Mormyridae and along the lineage ancestral to the Mormyridae. We have identified sites at which all nonelectric teleosts are monomorphic in their amino acid, but mormyrids have different amino acids. Our findings confirm the crucial role of SCN4aa in EOD evolution among mormyrid weakly electric fish. The inferred positive selection within Mormyridae makes this gene a prime candidate for further investigation of the divergent evolution of pulse-type EODs among closely related species.

Species delimitation and phylogenetic relationships in a genus of African weakly-electric fishes (Osteoglossiformes, Mormyridae, Campylomormyrus).

African weakly-electric fishes (Mormyridae) are able to communicate through species-specific electric signals; this feature might have favoured the evolutionary radiation observed in this family (over 200 species) by acting as an effective pre-zygotic isolation mechanism. In the present study we used mitochondrial (cytb) and nuclear (rps7, scn4aa) markers in order to reconstruct a species-phylogeny and identify species boundaries for the genus Campylomormyrus, by applying inference methods based on the multispecies coalescent model. Additionally, we employed 16 microsatellite markers, landmark-based morphometric measurements, and electro-physiological analyses as independent lines of evidence to the results obtained from the sequence data. The results show that groups that are morphologically different are also significantly divergent at the genetic level, whereas morphologically similar groups, displaying dissimilar electric signals, do not show enough genetic diversity to be considered separate species. Furthermore, the data confirm the presence of a yet undescribed species within the genus Campylomormyrus.

Comparative histology of the adult electric organ among four species of the genus Campylomormyrus (Teleostei: Mormyridae).

The electric organ (EO) of weakly electric mormyrids consists of flat, disk-shaped electrocytes with distinct anterior and posterior faces. There are multiple species-characteristic patterns in the geometry of the electrocytes and their innervation. To further correlate electric organ discharge (EOD) with EO anatomy, we examined four species of the mormyrid genus Campylomormyrus possessing clearly distinct EODs. In C. compressirostris, C. numenius, and C. tshokwe, all of which display biphasic EODs, the posterior face of the electrocytes forms evaginations merging to a stalk system receiving the innervation. In C. tamandua that emits a triphasic EOD, the small stalks of the electrocyte penetrate the electrocyte anteriorly before merging on the anterior side to receive the innervation. Additional differences in electrocyte anatomy among the former three species with the same EO geometry could be associated with further characteristics of their EODs. Furthermore, in C. numenius, ontogenetic changes in EO anatomy correlate with profound changes in the EOD. In the juvenile the anterior face of the electrocyte is smooth, whereas in the adult it exhibits pronounced surface foldings. This anatomical difference, together with disparities in the degree of stalk furcation, probably contributes to the about 12 times longer EOD in the adult.

Description of Notoglanidium pembetadi new species (Siluriformes: Claroteidae) from the Kouilou-Niari River, Republic of the Congo.

A new claroteid catfish, Notoglanidium peinbetadi, is described from the Kouilou-Niari River basin (Republic of the Congo). This species can be distinguished from all other currently known Notoglanidium species as well as from the very similar Anaspidoglanis boutchangai, to which two specimens have erroneously been attributed in the past, by the following combination of characters: II, 10-13 dorsal-fin rays; long dorsal-fin base (21.1-24.4% SL); short predorsal distance (30.1-33.5% SL); and short prepelvic distance (40.1-45.4% SL).

Remarkable morphological stasis in an extant vertebrate despite tens of millions of years of divergence.

The relationship between genotypic and phenotypic divergence over evolutionary time varies widely, and cases of rapid phenotypic differentiation despite genetic similarity have attracted much attention. Here, we report an extreme case of the reverse pattern--morphological stasis in a tropical fish despite massive genetic divergence. We studied the enigmatic African freshwater butterfly fish (Pantodon buchholzi), whose distinctive morphology earns it recognition as a monotypic family. We sequenced the mitochondrial genome of Pantodon from the Congo basin and nine other osteoglossomorph taxa for comparison with previous mitogenomic profiles of Pantodon from the Niger basin and other related taxa. Pantodon populations form a monophyletic group, yet their mitochondrial coding sequences differ by 15.2 per cent between the Niger and Congo basins. The mitogenomic divergence time between these populations is estimated to be greater than 50 Myr, and deep genetic divergence was confirmed by nuclear sequence data. Among six sister-group comparisons of osteoglossomorphs, Pantodon exhibits the slowest rate of morphological divergence despite a level of genetic differentiation comparable to both species-rich (e.g. Mormyridae) and species-poor (e.g. Osteoglossidae) families. Morphological stasis in these two allopatric lineages of Pantodon offers a living vertebrate model for investigating phenotypic stability over millions of generations in the face of profound fluctuations in environmental conditions.

Microbiota Landscape of Gut System of Guppy Fish (Poecilia reticulata) Plays an Outstanding Role in Adaptation Mechanisms.

Microbial consortium that is present in fish gut systems works together to achieve unknown specific roles. Here, we collected guppy fish from hydrocarbon- and trace metal-contaminated wastewater to assess the relationships between gut microbiota and host fish adaptation. Targeted genes and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing have been used to identify gut bacteria of guppies. Mineral-conditioned medium contributes to identify bacteria with the ability to grow and/or to tolerate hydrocarbon and trace metals. Additionally, trace metals' tolerance minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of microbiota was evaluated. We first isolated bacteria from the gut system, and we showed that Bacillus spp., Staphylococcus spp., Shigella spp., Salmonella spp, Pseudomonas spp., Citrobacter spp., Salmonella enterica ssp.arizonae sp., Enterobacter spp, and Acinetobacter spp. are part of guppy gut microbiota. Some representative species are able to degrade and/or tolerate gasoline and/or diesel fuel hydrocarbons. Tolerance to trace metals was observed in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. We showed that minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of some microbiota isolated from gut systems has been found including for mercury (Hg) between 2 and 4‰, cobalt (Co) Co (2 and 5‰), zinc (Zn) (9 and 18‰), and plomb (Pb) (22 and 27‰). Zn and Pb were the trace metals for which the rate of tolerance was significantly higher. Finally, we showed that cytochrome c oxidase is not interfering in presence of trace metals. The working consortium showed that bacteria should work together to achieve their best.

DNA barcoding fishes from the Congo and the Lower Guinean provinces: Assembling a reference library for poorly inventoried fauna.

The Congolese and Lower Guinean ichthyological provinces are understudied hotspots of the global fish diversity. Here, we barcoded 741 specimens from the Lower and Middle Congo River and from three major drainage basins of the Lower Guinean ichthyological province, Kouilou-Niari, Nyanga and Ogowe. We identified 194 morphospecies belonging to 82 genera and 25 families. Most morphospecies (92.8%) corresponded to distinct clusters of DNA barcodes. Of the four morphospecies present in both neighbouring ichthyological provinces, only one showed DNA barcode divergence <2.5%. A small fraction of the fishes barcoded here (12.9% of the morphospecies and 16.1% of the barcode clusters representing putative species) were also barcoded in a previous large-scale DNA analysis of freshwater fishes of the Lower Congo published in 2011 (191 specimens, 102 morphospecies). We compared species assignments before and after taxonomic updates and across studies performed by independent research teams and observed that most cases of inconsistent species assignments were due to unknown diversity (undescribed species and unknown intraspecific variation). Our results report more than 17 putative new species and show that DNA barcode data provide a measure of genetic variability that facilitates the inventory of underexplored ichthyofaunae. However, taxonomic scrutiny, associated with revisions and new species descriptions, is indispensable to delimit species and build a coherent reference library.

Intragenus (Campylomormyrus) and intergenus hybrids in mormyrid fish: Physiological and histological investigations of the electric organ ontogeny.

African weakly electric mormyrid fish show a high diversity of their electric organ discharge (EOD) both across and within genera. Thanks to a recently developed technique of artificial reproduction in mormyrid fish, we were able to perform hybridizations between different genera and within one genus (Campylomormyrus). The hybrids of intergenus hybridizations exhibited different degrees of reduced survival related to the phylogenetic distance of the parent species: hybrids of the crosses between C. rhynchophorus and its sister genus Gnathonemus survived and developed normally. Hybrids between C. rhynchophorus and a Mormyrus species (a more basal clade compared to Campylomormyrus s) survived up to 42days and developed many malformations, e.g., at the level of the unpaired fins. Hybrids between C. numenius and Hippopotamyrus pictus (a derived clade, only distantly related to Campylomormyrus) only survived for two days during embryological development. Eight different hybrid combinations among five Campylomormyrus species (C. tamandua, C. compressirostris, C. tshokwe, C. rhynchophorus, C. numenius) were performed. The aim of the hybridizations was to combine species with (1) either caudal or rostral position of the main stalk innervating the electrocytes in the electric organ and (2) short, median or long duration of their EOD. The hybrids, though they are still juveniles, show very interesting features concerning electrocyte geometry as well as EOD form and duration: the caudal position of the stalk is prevailing over the rostral position, and the penetration of the stalk is dominant over the non-penetrating feature (in the Campylomormyrus hybrids); in the hybrid between C. rhynchophorus and Gnathonemus petersii it is the opposite. When crossing species with long and short EODs, it is always the long duration EOD that is expressed in the hybrids. The F1-Hybrids of the cross C. tamandua×C. compressirostris are fertile: viable F2-fish could be obtained with artificial reproduction.

Survey of the nocuité of the contraptions and techniques of artisanal fishing on the populations of navy turtles of the bay of Loango (Congo).

Chelonia marine turtle species preservation is one of the international community challenges through the world. In Congo-Brazzaville, the Renatura organization (ONG) is engage to the biodiversity marine turtle species protection. Among the five of seven marine turtle species encountered in the coast, Turtle lute (Dermochelys coriacea); Green turtle (Chelonia mydas); Olive turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea); Turtle caouanne (Caretta caretta) and Turtle overlapped (Eretmochelys imbricata). All these species of navy turtles well that protected by different international conventions, undergo several threats among which the nets and contraptions of traditional fishing constitute one of the main reasons of their decline. Indeed the accidental captures in the nets of the traditional fishers represent a serious threat for the navy turtles. This problem is delicate to manage because these holds don't depend directly on the will of the fishers. Indeed the turtles take themselves inauspiciously in the nets and entangle themselves of it while trying to clear itself/themselves of the net. To remedy this situation, Renatura Congo has, in 2005, initiated a program of liberation of the accidental captures of navy turtles in the nets of traditional fishing. About 1500 liberations are done annually by the agents of Renatura Congo. The liberation of these turtles doesn't constitute a long-term solution. Also, before the size of their accidental captures, it appeared to us necessary to bring our contribution in the survey of the nocuité of the contraptions and techniques of traditional fishing used to the bay of Loango in order to meter in evidence those that are more harmful. Such an objective reaches once, will allow us to improve these contraptions and techniques in order to reduce the risks of accidental captures while maintaining the level of the holds of fish and other aquatic organisms.