Comparison of isozymic and muscle protein in three taxa ofLeuciscusfrom northern Italy

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Abstract
A biochemical‐genetic analysis was carried out on five samples of three species of Leuciscus, to verify the genetic divergence between Padanian L. cephalus and L. souffia and to unravel the taxonomic status of a Leuciscus population preliminarly reported as Leuciscus sp., collected from the Adriatic drainage basins and morphologically related to L. lucumonis, a recently described taxon of the Tyrrhenian basins. Both isozymic data on 25 loci and total protein analyses identified Leuciscus sp. as L. lucumonis and showed the high genetic divergence and polymorphism of L. souffia with respect to L. cephalus and L. lucumonis. This study confirms that L. lucumonis is a valid species that inhabits also Adriatic drainage basins and provides conclusive evidence that it is not originated by hybridization. In addition, genetic data fully support the hypothesis of a sharp divergence of L. souffia from congeneric taxa.