Integrative taxonomy of some Iranian peregrine earthworm species using morphology and barcoding (Annelida: Megadrili)

Abstract

Despite the biological and economic importance of earthworms, the taxonomic status and evolutionary relationships of most lumbricid genera are still under debate. Further complications arise from the recognition that earthworms also show a high cryptic diversity. Past and current field studies of Iranian earthworm fauna have resulted in the identification of a total number of 28 earthworm species. However, many specimens do not fully fit into their original descriptions, making the species assignation very difficult. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity using mitochondrial markers as a tool to assess the species occurrence of some problematic species in Iran. Four species with high morphological variation were selected: Aporrectodea caliginosa (Savigny, 1826), Aporrectodea trapezoides (Dugès, 1828), Dendrobaena byblica (Rosa, 1893) and Dendrobaena veneta (Rosa, 1886). Morphological identification was contrasted with the molecular information generated through COI and 16S barcoding and the COI and 16S sequences stored in the Genbank. The results of this first integrative taxonomic analysis revealed that D. veneta consisted of two separated clades and that a number of species assigned to D. byblica showed very close relationships with those belonging to the genus Philomontanus. The lack of taxonomic expertise and identification characters providing a clear and unambiguous identification of earthworms highlights the urgent need of new tools to identify species unequivocally. Therefore, it is concluded that more taxonomical studies are needed to clarify the diagnostic characters and taxonomic status of the species belonging to two genera, Aporrectodea and Dendrobaena (Lumbricidae), in Iran.

A novel biological sources consistency evaluation method reveals high level of biodiversity within wild natural medicine: A case study of Amynthas earthworms as “Guang Dilong”

“…Previous reports have validated 658 bp Folmer region of COI gene amplified by LCO1490/HCO2198 as the “standard” marker for the DNA barcoding of earthworms 3 , 37 . To set up a local reference database, 1575 Amynthas and Metaphire COI sequences were first collected from BARCODE OF LIFE DATA (BOLD; http://boldsystems.org ) and GenBank.…”

The threat of a non-native oligochaete species in Iran's freshwater: Assessment of the diversity and origin of Eiseniella tetraedra (Savigny, 1826) and its response to climate change

“…Parallel to the worldwide status, Iranian inland waters are exposed to habitat degradation and species introductions (either intentionally (e.g., for soil remediation or commercial applications) or inadvertently (e.g., in soil associated with horticultural and agricultural products) likely decrease endemic populations (Abdoli et al, 2022). Till now, 35 species of Oligochaetes have been identified from different regions of Iran (Ezzatpanah et al, 2010;Mirmonsef et al, 2011;Jablonska and Pesic, 2014;Nazarhaghighi et al, 2015;Sanchooli et al, 2019;Latif et al, 2020). Some molecular surveys have been conducted to clarify whether these species are native or exotic (Latif et al, 2017;Bozorgi et al, 2019).…”

“…Untill now, 35 species of Oligochaetes have been identified from different regions of Iran ( Ezzatpanah et al, 2010 ; Mirmonsef et al, 2011 ; Jabłońska and Pešić, 2014 ; Nazarhaghighi et al, 2014 ; Sanchooli et al, 2019 ; Latif et al, 2020 ). Some molecular surveys have been conducted to clarify whether these species are native or exotic ( Latif et al, 2018 ; Bozorgi et al, 2019 ).…”

Morphological differences between genetic lineages of the peregrine earthworm : Aporrectodea caliginosa (Savigny, 1826)

“…Morphological delimitation among the members of the complex is vague. Molecular analyses recovered A. caliginosa either as monophyletic (Pérez-Losada et al 2009, Fernández et al 2012 or as polyphyletic (Latif et al 2020); this issue requires a multigene nuclear dataset to be satisfactorily resolved.…”