| Pilot study for integrative taxonomy of selected water mite species within the genus Lebertia (Acari: Hydrachnidia) |
| Paper ID : 1044-IPCA4 |
| Authors |
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Alireza Saboori *1, Magdalena Szenejko2, Andrzej Zawal3 1Dept. Plant Protection, Col. Aric., Univ. Tehran 2Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Centre of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, University of Szczecin, Poland 3Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Center of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Szczecin, Wąska 13, 71–415 Szczecin, Poland |
| Abstract |
| Water mites (Hydrachnidia) are group of Acari widely distributed in the world, playing an important ecological role in many inland water ecosystems. Identification of their species affiliation is complicated and the existing descriptions are largely imperfect. There is therefore a real need to fill the cognitive gap at the level of alpha-taxonomy within this group of organisms, which may provide a comprehensive approach to the integrative taxonomy methodology. In Europe, such a detailed taxonomic revision mainly concerned the taxa within a small area, on a local scale. However, there are no data on multispecies communities on a larger geographical scale, an example of which is the genus Lebertia. Most of the information about barcodes within Lebertia, available in the BOLD Systems database is private and comes from Norway or the Netherlands. The research was of a pilot nature and concerned three species of water mites of the genus Lebertia: L. porosa, L. inaequalis and L. longiseta. The obtained results provided information on the phenotypic and genomic diversity of the studied water mite populations in a broader geographical perspective (Central, Western and Southern Europe). On the basis of the amplification of the cox1 mitochondrial gene, unique DNA barcodes were obtained, allowing to identify the species affiliation of 233 water mites from various geographical regions of Europe, from the area of 9 countries: Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Spain and Italy together with Sicily. About 83% of the examined water mites belonged to the subgenus Pilolebertia within which 4 species were diagnosed: L. porosa s. lato (153 individuals), L. inaequalis (29), L. longiseta (12) and L. insignis (6). L. porosa s. lato was identified in most samples and aquatic habitats, except for Lake Ohrid, while the other two species of water mites were sparse in the analysed material and showed a lower level of genetic diversity. L. inaequalis was diagnosed in samples from Poland, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Macedonia, while L. longiseta was found in samples from Poland and Montenegro. The analysed material also showed the presence of other species belonging to the related subgenus Lebertia s. str., most frequently represented by: L. glabra and L. fimbriata. The obtained results emphasised the importance of the area of the Balkan Peninsula as a refuge for water mites during the last glaciation and indicated the aquatic habitats of Sicily as potential reservoirs of haplotype diversity in L. porosa s. lato. |
| Keywords |
| cox1, DNA barcoding, Europe, integrative taxonomy, Lebertia, water mites |
| Status: Abstract Accepted (Poster Presentation) |