COI sequencing as tool for the taxonomic attribution ofPatellaspp. (Gastropoda): the case of morphologically undistinguishable juveniles settled on aPatella ferrugineaadult

Abstract

Patella ferruginea is an endangered marine gastropod, distributed on the western Mediterranean coasts, whose range has progressively contracted, due to intense human exploitation. A genetic analysis was performed on two unidentified young individuals belonging to the genus Patella found attached to the shell of an adult of P. ferruginea, with a twofold aim: (i) to achieve their correct taxonomic attribution by means of the DNA barcoding; and (ii) to shed some light on the hypothesized larval philopatry and/or juveniles phoresis in P. ferruginea. The survey was carried out comparing the sequences of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) Folmer region obtained for the two juveniles with those obtained for adults of P. ferruginea, P. caerulea, P. rustica, and P. ulyssiponensis, from different sites of the western Mediterranean, by means of maximum likelihood cluster analysis and a Bayesian-based assignment test. Results obtained evidenced that: (i) COI may be used with confidence as DNA barcoding in the genus Patella; and (ii) the two juveniles studied are not conspecific: one belonged to P. ferruginea, the other to P. rustica. The latter finding raises doubts about the juvenile phoresis and about the occurrence of larval philopatry in P. ferruginea, suggesting that an extensive use of a molecular approach for a better evaluation of the recruitment features of this endangered species should be adopted.

Filling the limpet gap: molecular characterization of the genus Patella (Patellidae, Gastropoda) in the Algerian coasts of Oran

“…Patella rustica haplotype network in lineages previously defined in different phylogenetic studies (e.g. Koufopanou et al 1999, Sá-Pinto et al 2005, Casu et al 2010. Moreover, with the exception of the high intraspecific divergence among P. candei samples and the low interspecific divergence between P. aspera and P. ulyssiponensis, the three species here analysed match the principles for barcoding identification.…”

“…Overall, our analyses of Patella COI haplotypes, which included both newly reported (this study) and previously obtained haplotypes (Mauro et al 2003, Sá-Pinto et al 2005, 2008, Espinosa & Ozawa 2006, Nakano & Ozawa 2007, Borrell et al 2010, Casu et al 2010, Ribeiro et al 2010, Espinosa et al 2010, Casu et al 2011, Muñoz-Colmenero et al 2012, Villamore et al 2014) has permitted to situate the samples analysed from the Oran's coasts within the Mediterranean patellid diversity. All these samples were included Fig.…”

Detection of Genetic Patterns in Endangered Marine Species Is Affected by Small Sample Sizes

“…To develop and test the multiplex, old genomic DNA obtained from previous studies [ 28 , 50 ], which was stored at −20 °C, was used. Overall, 191 samples of genomic DNA from 29 localities ( Table S1 ) were used to set up the multiplex amplification protocols.…”

Density and ecological aspect of endangered limpet Patella ferruginea in the western Algerian coast: Implications for the Conservation

“…Small individuals were excluded from the analyses, because the external morphological characters of the shell still do not show clearly the specific characters of this species (Guallart et al, 2006;Casu et al, 2010), or the possibly belonging to either limpet. However, the biometric data (length, width and height) were used to describe the structure of the population and to identify the presence and the abundance of the two morphotypes described for P. ferruginea (Espinosa and Ozawa, 2006).…”