Fish diversity in a doubly landlocked country - a description of the fish fauna of Uzbekistan using DNA barcoding

Uzbekistan is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world, where all rivers are endorheic basins. Although fish diversity is relatively poor in Uzbekistan compared to other regions, the fish fauna of the region has not yet been fully studied. The aim of this study was to establish a reliable barcoding reference database for fish in Uzbekistan. A total of 666 specimens, belonging to 59 species within 39 genera, 16 families, and 9 orders, were subjected to polymerase chain reaction amplification in the barcode region and sequenced. The length of the 666 barcodes was 682 bp. The average K2P distances within species, genera, and families were 0.22%, 6.33%, and 16.46%, respectively. The average interspecific distance was approximately 28.8 times higher than the mean intraspecific distance. The Barcode Index Number (BIN) discordance report showed that 666 specimens represented 55 BINs, of which five were singletons, 45 were taxonomically concordant, and five were taxonomically discordant. The barcode gap analysis demonstrated that 89.3% of the fish species examined could be discriminated by DNA barcoding. These results provide new insights into fish diversity in the inland waters of Uzbekistan and can provide a basis for the development of further studies on fish fauna.