Abstract
During the last years DNA barcoding has become a popular method of choice for molecular specimen identification. Here we present a comprehensive DNA barcode library of various crustacean taxa found in the North Sea, one of the most extensively studied marine regions of the world. Our data set includes 1,332 barcodes covering 205 species, including taxa of the Amphipoda, Copepoda, Decapoda, Isopoda, Thecostraca, and others. This dataset represents the most extensive DNA barcode library of the Crustacea in terms of species number to date. By using the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD), unique BINs were identified for 198 (96.6%) of the analyzed species. Six species were characterized by two BINs (2.9%), and three BINs were found for the amphipod species Gammarus salinus Spooner, 1947 (0.4%). Intraspecific distances with values higher than 2.2% were revealed for 13 species (6.3%). Exceptionally high distances of up to 14.87% between two distinct but monophyletic clusters were found for the parasitic copepod Caligus elongatus Nordmann, 1832, supporting the results of previous studies that indicated the existence of an overlooked sea louse species. In contrast to these high distances, haplotype-sharing was observed for two decapod spider crab species, Macropodia parva Van Noort & Adema, 1985 and Macropodia rostrata (Linnaeus, 1761), underlining the need for a taxonomic revision of both species. Summarizing the results, our study confirms the application of DNA barcodes as highly effective identification system for the analyzed marine crustaceans of the North Sea and represents an important milestone for modern biodiversity assessment studies using barcode sequences.
Highlights
In recent years, the use of molecular methods for specimen identification and classification has become quite popular, including proteome [1,2,3] or spectroscopic data [4,5]
Whereas various phenomena may affect the application of DNA barcodes or mitochondrial DNA in general for successful specimen identification, e.g. heteroplasmy [14,15], incomplete lineage sorting [16], the presence of mitochondrial pseudogenes [17,18] or introgressive hybridization [19,20], DNA barcoding has become an important tool in numerous biological disciplines, e.g. modern biodiversity assessment studies [12,21,22,23], conservation biology [12,24], or the authentication of sea food [25,26]
In this study we present a comprehensive DNA barcode library of various crustacean taxa found in the North Sea, one of the most extensively studied ecosystems of the world
Summary
The use of molecular methods for specimen identification and classification has become quite popular, including proteome [1,2,3] or spectroscopic data [4,5]. As a consequence of uniparental inheritance and haploidy, mtDNA has a four-fold smaller effective population size compared to nuclear DNA, resulting in faster lineage sorting [9]. In this context, the standardized use of an approx. 650 base pair (bp) fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) as DNA barcode represents a very successful mtDNA-based approach for the identification of animal specimens [10,11,12]. Many recently published species descriptions and taxonomic studies included barcode sequence data [27,28,29,30,31]
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