A holistic approach to taxonomic evaluation of two closely related endangered freshwater mussel species, the oyster mussel Epioblasma capsaeformis and tan riffleshell Epioblasma florentina walkeri (Bivalvia: Unionidae)

Abstract

Primers for 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and characterized for the endangered oyster mussel Epioblasma capsaeformis from the Clinch River, TN.Microsatellite loci also were amplified for individuals collected from the following additional populations or species: (1) E. capsaeformis from Duck River, TN; (2) E. florentina walkeri from Indian Creek, upper Clinch River, VA; (3) E. florentina walkeri from Big South Fork Cumberland River, TN; and (4) E. torulosa rangiana from Allegheny River, PA. Amplification occurred for most loci in these closely-related endangered species or populations; therefore, a high level of flanking sequence similarity was inferred for this group of species and populations. Allelic diversity ranged from 9-20 alleles/locus, and averaged 1 3.6/locus for all 5 populations investigated. Average expected heterozygosity (H E ) per locus ranged from 0.78-0.92, and averaged 0.86. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using PCR primers to amplify microsatellite loci across freshwater mussel species, and that the loci investigated contained adequate variation to conduct population genetic studies.

Population Demographics and Life History of the Round Hickorynut (Obovaria subrotunda) in the Duck River, Tennessee

“…Hosts of O. subrotunda identified in our study are also used by several other mussel species occurring in the Duck River. For instance E. flabellare is a host for Medionidus conradicus (Zale and Neves, 1982), Ptychobranchus subtentum, Lasmigona costata (Luo, 1993), and Epioblasma ahlstedi (Jones et al, 2006). The use of the same host species by multiple mussel species raises the possibility of host competition because after being infested with glochidia, fish can develop immunity to subsequent glochidial infestations (Arey, 1923;Rogers and Dimock, 2003), and fish with developed immunity to glochidia of one species are immune to glochidia of other species (Dodd et al, 2005).…”

Identification of ‘extinct’ freshwater mussel species using DNA barcoding

“…This indicates that only one copy of the gene was amplifying, as found in some other studies on unionids (Grobler et al . 2005; Jones et al . 2006).…”

Development and characterization of microsatellite loci in the endangered oyster mussel Epioblasma capsaeformis (Bivalvia: Unionidae)

“…We have described the development and characteristics of 10 microsatellite primer pairs designed from DNA of the endangered oyster mussel Epioblasma capsaeformis , collected from the Clinch River, TN. These primer pairs have been used in a taxonomic study of species belonging to the genus Epioblasma , and represent only the second set of microsatellite primers to be published for freshwater mussels (Jones 2004). The first set of microsatellite primers was developed by Eackles & King (2002) for the endangered pink mucket Lampsilis abrupta .…”