Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Metaphire vulgaris Based on the Mitochondrial COI Gene and Microsatellites

Abstract

The earthworm species Metaphire vulgaris (a member of the Clitellata class) is widely distributed across China, and has important ecological functions and medicinal value. However, investigations into its genetic diversity and differentiation are scarce. Consequently, we evaluated the genetic diversity of five populations of M. vulgaris (GM, HD, NYYZ, QDDY, and QDY) in Yancheng, China via the mitochondrial COI gene and the novel microsatellites developed there. A total of nine haplotypes were obtained by sequencing the mitochondrial COI gene, among which NYYZ and QDDY populations had the greatest number of haplotypes (nh = 5). Further, the nucleotide diversity ranged from 0.00437 to 0.1243. The neighbor-joining trees and the TCS network of haplotypes indicated that earthworm populations within close geographical range were not genetically isolated at these small scale distances. Results of the identification of microsatellite molecular markers revealed that the allele number in 12 microsatellite loci ranged from 4 to 13. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.151 to 0.644, whereas the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.213 to 0.847. The polymorphism data content of most sites was >0.5, which indicated that the designed sites had high polymorphism. Structural analysis results indicated that GM, HD, and NYYZ had similar genetic structures across the five populations. The Nei’s genetic distance between HD and NYYZ populations was the smallest (Ds = 0.0624), whereas that between HD and QDY populations was the largest (Ds = 0.2364). The UPGMA tree showed that HD were initially grouped with NYYZ, followed by GM, and then with QDDY. Furthermore, cross-species amplification tests were conducted for Metaphire guillelmi, which indicated that the presented markers were usable for this species. This study comprised a preliminary study on the genetic diversity of M. vulgaris, which provides basic data for future investigations into this species.

Genetic population structure and reproductive system of two invasive Asian earthworms,Amynthas tokioensisandAmynthas agrestis

“…Genotyping results were conducted for seven loci for each earthworm species for 216 Amynthas tokioensis and 209 A. agrestis ( Table 3 ). Across all loci, the number of alleles varied from 2–11 for A. tokioensis and 5–21 for A. agrestis , which is similar to results for other earthworm species ( Keller et al, 2020 ; Fang et al, 2021 ). Overall genetic diversity was high, with observed heterozygosity values (Ho) >0.90 for some loci for both species.…”

In‐situ tin casting combined with three‐dimensional scanner to quantify anecic earthworm burrows

“…Our results were consistent with the findings of Chan (2001). The no-till (LY) field had high soil organic matter content, which Metaphire tschiliensis (3) DQ835677 3 a Earthworm species were classified according to References: 1 (Fang et al, 2021), 2 (Shen, 2012), and 3 (Teng et al, 2013). b The accession number from the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for earthworm genome classification.…”

“… a Earthworm species were classified according to References: 1 (Fang et al., 2021), 2 (Shen, 2012), and 3 (Teng et al., 2013). …”

Development of Microsatellite Markers Based on Transcriptome Sequencing and Evaluation of Genetic Diversity in Swimming Crab (Portunus trituberculatus)

“…Genetic diversity is the foundational core of ecosystems and species diversity and can reveal population connectivity and adaptive potential of a species as well as provide insight into past events ( Fang et al, 2021b ; Ma et al, 2021 ). It is affected by many factors, including artificial selection, genetic drift, migration, and breeding systems and is usually evaluated by the polymorphism information content ( PIC ) and heterozygosity ( Zhou, et al, 2019b ).…”