Hypancistrus zebra, or
Zebra pleco, is just one of the 34 species of which we sequenced the liver
transcriptome, but a good example of all the current threatens against
Loricariidae fish.
The Zebra pleco is endemic to a stretch of Xingu River of
only 100km. This region, known as the “big bend”, is impacted by the
construction of the Belo Monte dam, the world's third-largest hydroelectric
dam. Fish ecologists say that the habitat changes caused by the dam
construction puts this species at risk of extinction. This is among the main
reasons why the Zebra pleco is at the list of endangered species from the
Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and its capture is forbidden. Another
major cause of concern is the Zebra pleco being extremely valuable in the
international aquarium trade and, therefore, the traffic of this species is a
regular practice that has challenged the Brazilian Environmental Authorities
and the Federal Police. Sequencing and annotating the transcriptome of H.
zebra and other endemic loricariids are effective ways to catalog and
preserve the genetic biodiversity of these species. This genetic information
provide environmental police-makers and the Federal Police unique ways to
prevent and combat the traffic of the Zebra pleco and several other
Loricariidae fishes popular in in the aquarium trade. Moreover, the genetic
information that will be produced can also be useful to subsidize strategies
for the conservation of these species, including their reproduction in
captivity.
By the way, the Zebra pleco we used
were a kind donation from Dr. Jansen Zuanon, a fish taxonomy and ecology at the
Brazilian National Institute for Amazonian Research who serve as the trustee
for all H. zebra apprehended by
Brazilian authorities.
