Abstract
ObjectiveThe invasive mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis has established invasive populations across the globe and in some regions, have completely displaced native mussels through competitive exclusion. The objective of this study was to elucidate global connectivity patterns of M. galloprovincialis strictly using archived cytochrome c oxidase 1 sequence data obtained from public databases. Through exhaustive mining and the development of a systematic workflow, we compiled the most comprehensive global CO1 dataset for M. galloprovincialis thus far, consisting of 209 sequences representing 14 populations. Haplotype networks were constructed and genetic differentiation was assessed using pairwise analysis of molecular variance.ResultsThere was significant genetic structuring across populations with significant geographic patterning of haplotypes. In particular, South Korea, South China, Turkey and Australasia appear to be the most genetically isolated populations. However, we were unable to recover a northern and southern hemisphere grouping for M. galloprovincialis as was found in previous studies. These results suggest a complex dispersal pattern for M. galloprovincialis driven by several contributors including both natural and anthropogenic dispersal mechanisms along with the possibility of potential hybridization and ancient vicariance events.
Highlights
Quantifying dispersal in marine environments has been a long standing challenge due to the difficulty in tracking large numbers of microscopic larvae within oceanic basins [1]
These results suggest a complex dispersal pattern for M. galloprovincialis driven by several contributors including both natural and anthropogenic dispersal mechanisms along with the possibility of potential hybridization and ancient vicariance events
Population genetics is often employed to track the dispersal of invasive species but the dynamic nature of marine invasions caused by changes in vector strength, transient dispersal barriers and stochastic factors, poses a challenge [2]
Summary
A 360-bp fragment with 157 variable sites was obtained for the CO1 marker. A total of 67 haplotypes was recovered of which 47 were unique and 38% of these unique haplotypes originated from the South African population (Fig. 2b). There were four distinct haplogroups that, with the exception of Turkish individuals, were separated by at least 20 mutational steps. These haplogroups included Australasia, consisting of some Australian individuals and the entire Tasmanian and New Zealand populations, Turkey, Korea and South China. While the parsimony network showed generally strong geographic patterning of haplotypes, some haplotypes were shared by individuals from six geographically distinct populations. There was a close relationship between South African and Chilean haplotypes with North Atlantic and Mediterranean haplotypes as indicated by the high frequency of haplotype sharing and the small number of mutational steps separating them. Pairwise comparisons showed generally high ɸST values indicating strong genetic differentiation across all localities. There was low and non-significant genetic differentiation between British Columbia and Chile, China (NP), Portugal and western Australia (0.07–0.18)
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