The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and surrounding mountain regions form one of the world’s most distinctive freshwater environmental gradients. Schizothoracinae are among the most representative endemic fish lineages in these systems and provide a useful model for studying how drainage history, genome evolution, adaptation, and conservation interact. In this review, we synthesize schizothoracine research within an environment–evolution–conservation framework. We examine how drainage history and connectivity shape divergence and gene exchange, how polyploidy and genome remodeling provide the genomic background for adaptive inference, and how phenotypic and population-genomic evidence can be translated into conservation units and management priorities. Across current studies, cold-associated metabolic remodeling and UV-related DNA damage response and repair emerge as the most recurrent molecular themes, whereas hypoxia-related signals are more context-dependent. We further show that morphology, otolith chemistry, age–growth traits, and population structure can strengthen MU/ESU interpretation when integrated with genomic evidence. Future progress will depend on broader chromosome-level genome coverage, more systematic comparison of structural genomic variation, standardized stressor-linked designs, and denser sampling in geomorphic transition zones and putative hybrid regions.
Cao et al. (Sat,) studied this question.