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Molecular evidence for further overlooked species within the Gammarus fossarum complex (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

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Abstract

The freshwater amphipod Gammarus fossarum Koch, in Panzer, 1836 is a locally abundant keystone species mainly occuring in European headwaters but also in larger rivers. Genetic studies in the past 25 years have revealed three cryptic species within nominal G. fossarum (types A, B and C). Assignments of specimens to these types were based on allozyme and 16S markers. Today, a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) is primarily used as a genetic marker for species assignments (‘DNA Barcoding’), yet not a single CO1 sequence of G. fossarum is available in the Barcode of Life Database. We analysed new CO1 and 16S data for German, Hungarian and Croatian G. fossarum specimens and compared them with 16S and CO1 sequences of G. fossarum from GenBank. Thereby, we close the gap between traditional allozyme- and 16S-based species assignments and modern CO1 barcoding. Studying genetic variation in 55 specimens from 29 populations, we identified between 11 and 23 novel and genetically distinct clades using distance- and tree-based methods. Our results suggest that G. fossarum comprises several additional, yet unrecognised, species in particular from the Balkan region. Therefore, a taxonomic revision and biogeographic reconsideration of the G. fossarum complex is urgently needed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ralph Tollrian (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) for helpful discussions and support. Furthermore, we thank Julia Maria Vollmer (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) for laboratory support. Florian Altermatt (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG), Mark Harrison (University of Leicester, United Kingdom) and two anonymous reviewers contributed helpful comments and suggestions that substantially improved this manuscript. Special thanks to Gerd Mayer (University of Ulm, Germany) for his efforts in collecting and providing us with the southern German samples. We are indebted to Géza Selmeczy (University of Pannonia, Hungary), Maria Špoljar & Krešimir Žganec (University of Zagreb, Croatia) and Anne-Marie Westram and Florian Altermatt (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG) for kindly providing us additional specimens for analysis. This project was funded by a fund grant of the Ruhr University’s rectorate to FL. FL and MW are supported by a grant of the Kurt Eberhard Bode foundation within the Deutsches Stiftungszentrum (DSZ).

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  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801, Bochum, Germany

    Martina Weiss, Jan Niklas Macher, Meike Anna Seefeldt & Florian Leese

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  1. Martina Weiss
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Weiss, M., Macher, J.N., Seefeldt, M.A. et al. Molecular evidence for further overlooked species within the Gammarus fossarum complex (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Hydrobiologia 721, 165–184 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1658-7

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