engleski

Molecular phylogeny of the branchiobdellidans (Annelida: Clitellata) living on Croatian populations of Austropotamobius torrentium and Austropotamobius pallipes

Branchiobdellidans are ectosymbiotic annelids that are primarily associated with freshwater crayfish. Previous studies of branchiobdellidans in Croatia have been focused mainly on the distribution and diversity of the genus Branchiobdella. The objective of this research was to infer the phylogenetic relationships of the branchiobdellidan species living on the Croatian populations of crayfish from the genus Austropotamobius, in order to examine potential coevolution of branchiobdellidan and crayfish species in Croatia. Results of the phylogenetic analysis of both genera were compared. The examination of freshwater crayfish from 74 sites confirmed the existence of five branchiobdellidan species: Branchiobdella astaci, B. hexodonta, B. parasita, B. pentodonta and B. italica. Nucleotide sequences of two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16S rRNA) have been used to estimate the phylogenetic relationships between the Croatian species from the genus Branchiobdella. The results of the phylogenetic analysis, based on the examination of the constructed phylogenetic trees and values of p-distances, indicate that the speciation pattern observed within the genus Austropotamobius in Croatia might be similar in studied branchiobdellidans.

Austropotamobius; branchiobdellidans; coevolution; COI; 16S rRNA

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