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Cited by 165Fish Biology and Ecology StudiesEvolution and Paleontology StudiesGenomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Evolution of miniaturization and the phylogenetic position of Paedocypris, comprising the world's smallest vertebrate

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Rüber, Lukas, Kottelat, Maurice, Tan, Heok, Ng, Peter KL, Britz, Ralf·2007·BMC Evolutionary Biology
DOI 10.1186/1471-2148-7-38PMC PMC1838906
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Paedocypris, a highly developmentally truncated fish from peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia, comprises the world's smallest vertebrate. Although clearly a cyprinid fish, a hypothesis about its phylogenetic position among the subfamilies of this largest teleost family, with over 2400 species, does not exist. Here we present a phylogenetic analyses of 227 cypriniform taxa, including 213 cyprinids, based upon complete mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b nucleotide sequences in order to determine the phylogenetic position of Paedocypris and to study the evolution of miniaturization among cyprinids. RESULTS: Our analyses reveal a strongly supported sister group relationship (clade C) between Paedocypris and Sundadanio, another developmentally truncated miniature cyprinid. Clade C was resolved as sister group of a larger clade characterized by small rasborine taxa (clade D). We found that miniaturised taxa are more numerous in the rasborine clade A, formed by clades C and D, than in any other cyprinid clade. The consensus cytb in cyprinids includes 380 amino acids and an incomplete T-- stop codon. We noted that a few cyprinids mostly rasborine taxa placed within clade A had either a TAA or TAG stop codon, 376, 378, or 381 amino acids, and up to 10 base pairs (bp) of noncoding region before the 5' end of the tRNA-Thr. Our relaxed molecular clock estimates revealed high divergence times for the Sundadanio and Paedocypris clades and provide a first temporal framework for the evolution of miniaturization among cyprinids. CONCLUSION: Paedocypris belongs to a clade (Rasborinae clade A) that shows recurrent miniaturization, including both taxa characterized by developmental truncation and by proportioned dwarfism. Its closest relative is another miniaturized taxon, the genus Sundadanio. We conclude that the miniaturized cyprinids with remarkable morphological novelties, like Paedocypris and Danionella, are at the same time the most developmentally truncated taxa. The miniaturized cyprinids with no or few developmental truncations like Boraras, Microrasbora, and Horadandia show no such evolutionary novelties.

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  • The five species of Danionella are textbook examples for the link between miniaturization via developmental truncation and evolutionary morphological novelty.

    “The five species of Danionella are textbook examples for the link between miniaturization via developmental truncation and evolutionary morphological novelty, as proposed by Hanken and Wake2 and discussed in detail for this genus by Rüber et al.17 and Britz and Conway9.”

    From The emerging vertebrate model species for neurophysiological studies is Danionella cerebrum, new species (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) (2021) · cites this paper as Rüber et al. [17]

    The Discussion (Miniaturization; page not provided) describes Danionella as developmentally truncated and identifies morphological novelties, supporting the central link. The paper does not establish that the genus has five species or that all five exhibit those traits. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • In Cypriniformes, miniaturization has evolved repeatedly, producing two distinct forms: proportioned dwarfs and progenetic miniatures.

    “In Cypriniformes, the most species-rich order of freshwater fishes, miniaturization has evolved repeatedly, producing two distinct forms: proportioned dwarfs, which closely resemble smaller versions of larger relatives, and progenetic miniatures, which retain larval traits due to developmental truncation into adulthood.”

    From Convergent genome streamlining accompanies independent miniaturization in the world’s smallest fishes (2026) · cites this paper as [10]

  • Miniaturization is comparatively frequent in teleost fishes.

    “Miniaturization is comparatively frequent in teleost fishes (10, 11, 40).”

    From Convergent genome streamlining accompanies independent miniaturization in the world’s smallest fishes (2026) · cites this paper as [10]

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Research works printed but not linked: 30

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Rüber, L., Kottelat, M., Tan, H., Ng, P. K., & Britz, R.
Affiliations
  • Natural History Museum (GB)
  • National University of Singapore (SG)
Corresponding author
Rüber, Lukas
ORCID
Venue
BMC Evolutionary Biology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2007
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
38
ISSN
1471-2148 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/1471-2148-7-38
PMC
PMC1838906
OpenAlex
W2130432335
Cited by
165
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 14
FWCI
13.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • BMC Evolutionary Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • National University of Singapore (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Keywords
miniaturization, cytochrome b, mitochondrial DNA, stop codon, relaxed molecular clock, divergence time estimation, cypriniform fishes, dwarfism, morphological novelty
MeSH terms
Animals, Base Sequence, Cyprinidae, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Genetic Variation, Sequence Alignment, DNA Primers, Evolution, Molecular, Cytochromes b, Body Size

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