Molecular phylogeny and revised classification of the haplotilapiine cichlid fishes formerly referred to as “Tilapia”

African cichlids formerly referred to as ”Tilapia” represent a paraphyletic species assemblage belonging to the so called haplotilapiine lineage which gave rise to the spectacular East African cichlid radiations (EARs) as well as to globally important aquaculture species. We present a comprehensive molecular phylogeny of representative haplotilapiine cichlids, combining in one data set four mitochondrial and five nuclear loci for 76 species, and compare it with phylogenetic information of a second data set of 378 mitochondrial ND2 haplotypes representing almost all important “Tilapia” or Tilapia-related lineages as well as most EAR lineages. The monophyly of haplotilapiines is supported, as is the nested sister group relationship of Etia and mouthbrooding tilapiines with the remaining haplotilapiines. The latter are consistently placed in eight monophyletic clades over all datasets and analyses, but several dichotomous phylogenetic relationships appear compromised by cytonuclear discord...