Experimental hybridization of Barbus barbus and Barbus meridionalis: physiological, morphological, and genetic aspects

Abstract

F1 hybrids were produced by crossing, in artificial conditions, female Barbus barbus and male B. meridionalis. Results from the genetic study describing enzymatic patterns produced after electrophoresis of experimental F1 hybrids confirmed a great part of the original interpretation of patterns observed in the natural population. Morphological studies which examined denticle length on the last hard ray of the dorsal fin (well developed in B. barbus and absent in B. meridionalis), showed that F1 hybrids' values were not exactly intermediate between the parental values. Up to two years old, experimental hybrids displayed identical growth rates and sexual dimorphism of length (in favour of the females) as B. barbus growing in the same conditions. At this age, in female hybrids, the ovaries matured and produced fertilizable ovules: in male hybrids, the testicles were morphologically normal but no sperm was produced. If this sterility is confirmed in the reciprocal cross (male B. barbus × female B. meridionalis), the phenomenon would be an essential feature in understanding this hybridization.