Cryptic or cosmopolitan? Unveiling the Laeonereis culveri complex along South American estuaries through DNA barcoding
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1
Adão José Cardoso Museum of Zoology, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas, Brazil
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2
Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, University of Minho, Portugal
DNA barcode-based studies on the diversity of polychaete species occurring in Brazilian coasts have received little to no attention. Nevertheless, it has been suspected that several polychaete taxa have hidden diversity, including cryptic and pseudocryptic species. Laeonereis culveri (Nereididae) represents an old case of taxonomic ambiguity, which since 1971 is assumed as a single species occurring from north to south along the Atlantic Coast of the Americas. In 2009, a taxonomic revision based exclusively on morphology corroborated the previous status. The current study aimed to review L. culveri taxonomy, diversity and distribution through the morphological and DNA barcode-based approach.
Herein, we sampled and examined 23 populations spread along the South American Atlantic coast from North Brazil to Mar del Plata, Argentina. All specimens were identified morphologically and processed for DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing of the mtDNA COI-5P and 16S rRNA 16S genes, as well as the nuclear 28S rRNA gene. Sequences were processed and edited in MEGA 7.0, where genetic distances were also calculated. Four molecular-based species delimitation methods were applied, the ABGD, bPTP, GMYC and BIN. Bayesian trees were estimated in Mr. Bayes and the haplotype network was determined using the reduced median algorithm in Network 5.0.
Specimens from the sampled populations were confirmed as L. culveri based on external diagnostic characters. The COI barcodes split the morphospecies in seven completely sorted MOTUs, displaying deep genetic divergence (K2P ranging from 6.8% to 21.9%). Most of MOTUs were clearly sorted geographically, except for the overlap in the geographic boundaries between MOTUs 2 and 3 occurring in Amapá state, and MOTUs 6 and 7 occurring both in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. Sequences from 16s rRNA and 28s rRNA genes, support the same seven MOTUs and geographic sorting identical with the COI-based pattern.
We have found morphological and multi-locus evidence for the existence of at least seven cryptic species within the largely distributed L. culveri morphotype. The role of L. culveri as an important bioindicator of organic enrichment in estuaries needs to be revised in light of these new findings, namely through detailed ecological characterization of the MOTUs here detected. The deep divergences and geographic sorting of these species suggests that their current distribution still reflects a diversification process that likely initiated millions of years ago. L. culveri may therefore provide an important case-study to bring light into the poorly known phylogeographic history of marine macrobethic invertebrates along the Atlantic coasts of South America.
Keywords:
DNA barcode,
Polychaeta,
Nereididae,
Biodiversity,
phylogeny
Conference:
XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) , Braga, Portugal, 9 Sep - 12 Sep, 2019.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Ecology, Biodiversity and Vulnerable Ecosystems
Citation:
Sampieri
BR,
Vieira
PE,
Teixeira
MA,
Amaral
AC and
Costa
FO
(2019). Cryptic or cosmopolitan? Unveiling the Laeonereis culveri complex along South American estuaries through DNA barcoding.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.08.00108
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Received:
05 Aug 2019;
Published Online:
27 Sep 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Bruno R Sampieri, Adão José Cardoso Museum of Zoology, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, 13.083-863, Brazil, brunorsampieri@gmail.com