Higher genetic diversity in introduced than in native populations of the mussel Mytella charruana: evidence of population admixture at introduction sites

    Authors

    N. K. Gillis; L. J. Walters; F. C. Fernandes;E. A. Hoffman

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Divers. Distrib.

    Keywords

    Admixture; biological invasions; cytochrome-c-oxidase-subunit-I; invasive species; population genetics; MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA INHERITANCE; PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS; INVASION; GENETICS; SPECIES INVASIONS; UNITED-STATES; ZEBRA MUSSEL; PERNA-PERNA; BIVALVIA; EVOLUTION; SUCCESS; Biodiversity Conservation; Ecology

    Abstract

    Aim Levels of genetic diversity can be used to determine haplotype frequency, population size and patterns of invasive species distribution. In this study, we sought to investigate the genetic structure of the invasive marine mussel Mytella charruana and compare variation from invasive populations with variation found within three native populations. Location Invaded areas in the USA (Florida, Georgia); native areas in Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. Methods We sequenced 722 bp of the mitochondrial COI gene from 83 M. charruana samples from four invasive populations (USA) and 71 samples from two natural populations (Ecuador, Columbia). In addition, we sequenced 31 individuals of a congeneric species, Mytella guyanensis, from Salvador, Brazil. We constructed the phylogenetic relationship among all haplotypes and compared diversity measures among all populations. Results We found significantly higher levels of nucleotide diversity in invasive populations than in native populations, although the number of haplotypes was greater in the native populations. Moreover, mismatch distribution analyses resulted in a pattern indicative of population admixture for the invasive populations. Conversely, mismatch distributions of native populations resulted in a pattern indicative of populations in static equilibrium. Main conclusion Our data present compelling evidence that the M. charruana invasion resulted from admixture of at least two populations, which combined to form higher levels of genetic diversity in invasive populations. Moreover, our data suggest that one of these populations originated from the Caribbean coast of South America. Overall, this study provides an analysis of genetic diversity within invasive populations and explores how that diversity may be influenced by the genetic structure of native populations and how mass dispersal may lead to invasion success.

    Journal Title

    Diversity and Distributions

    Volume

    15

    Issue/Number

    5

    Publication Date

    1-1-2009

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    784

    Last Page

    795

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000269264300006

    ISSN

    1366-9516

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