Taxonomic distinction of Ophelia barquii and O. bicornis (Annelida: Polychaeta) in the Mediterranean as revealed by ISSR markers and the number of nephridiopores

Ophelia bicornis sensu lato is a polychaete living in intertidal sandy habitats of Mediterranean and European Atlantic coasts, whose systematics have been strongly debated in the past few decades. In the present work the count of nephridiopores was coupled with genetic analysis carried out with DNA...

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Published in:Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2005-08, Vol.85 (4), p.835-841
Main Authors: Maltagliati, Ferruccio, Casu, Marco, Lai, Tiziana, Sareri, Daniela Iraci, Casu, Daniela, Galletti, Marco Curini, Cantone, Grazia, Castelli, Alberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Annelida
Annelida and closely related phyla: sipuncula. Echiura. Nemertinea
Beaches
Biodiversity
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic testing
Invertebrates
Marine
Marine invertebrates
Morphology
Ophelia
Ophelia barquii
Ophelia bicornis
Polychaeta
Research Article
Sea water ecosystems
Synecology
Systematics
Taxonomy
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Summary:Ophelia bicornis sensu lato is a polychaete living in intertidal sandy habitats of Mediterranean and European Atlantic coasts, whose systematics have been strongly debated in the past few decades. In the present work the count of nephridiopores was coupled with genetic analysis carried out with DNA markers (inter simple sequence repeats) for a total of 30 individuals collected at six Italian beaches. Exact test, analysis of molecular variance, non-metric multidimensional scaling and assignment tests clearly separated individuals with five nephridiopore pairs from those with six pairs. This finding validated results of a recent allozyme study in which O. bicornis sensu lato was split into O. bicornis sensu stricto (six nephridiopore pairs) and O. barquii (five nephridiopore pairs). This paper represents a further contribution to the estimation of biodiversity within marine invertebrates.
ISSN:0025-3154
1469-7769
DOI:10.1017/S0025315405011781