Cobitis, hybrid zone, Elbe river, hybridisation, microsatellites

The Cobitis spined loach hybrids are common in Europe nowadays. As clones of interspecific origin, they reproduce through gynogenesis. Cobitis elongatoides is a sexual species that readily hybridize with other sexual species over continental Europe. Cobitis taenia has been found as a mating partner of C. elongatoides in the northern half. The transition from sexuality to clonality by hybridization between the two species has been successfully tested experimentally. Also, the dynamics of the hybrid zone along the Oder River where the two species interact have been understood. We focus on the Cobitis mating system in the Elbe River basin, westward from the Oder. The Elbe (ending in the North Sea) has a parallel flow with the Oder (ending in the Baltic Sea). We combine multiple molecular tools and ask whether the hybrid zone along the Elbe is also parallel in its dynamics and processes with the Oder, or not. Germany may represent the area where C. elongatoides might have met C. taenia for the first time.