engleski

Can species delimitation methods help in resolving stone crayfish taxonomy?

Stone crayfish is a freshwater species that inhabits small waterbodies at higher altitudes of central and south-eastern Europe. Previous research revealed that stone crayfish presents genetically highly diverse species, and recently a new crayfish species, formerly considered stone crayfish, was described. In this comprehensive study we included previous samples and new ones collected from 69 previously unsampled locations in Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia. In order to assess the genetic diversity of the stone crayfish we analysed mtDNA and nuDNA. Results confirmed Dinaric Karst as a hot spot of the stone crayfish diversity and revealed previously unrecognised genetically divergent populations. Considering the high diversity present within the species, a wide range of species delimitation methods were applied on the mtDNA dataset. Different methods resulted in different numbers of operational taxonomic units within the stone crayfish. The results of this study are a step forward towards the future species description within the stone crayfish species complex.

Austropotamobius torrentium, ITS2, biodiversity, ABGD, TCS, GMYC, bPTP, *BFD

nije evidentirano