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Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on May 8, 2009
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2009 75(3):241-251; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyp025
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved

Limpets of the genus Nacella (Patellogastropoda) from the Southwestern Atlantic: species identification based on molecular data

M. Carla De Aranzamendi1, Cristina N. Gardenal1, Juan P. Martin2 and Ricardo Bastida3

1 Cátedra de Genética de Poblaciones y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Avenida Vélez Sarsfield 299, (5000) Córdoba, Argentina; 2 Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Unidad Académica San Julián, Colón y Sargento Cabral, (9310) San Julián, Santa Cruz, Argentina; and 3Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CC 43, (7600) Mar del Plata, Argentina

Correspondence: C.N. Gardenal; e-mail: ngardenal{at}efn.uncor.edu


  Abstract

Several species of the genus Nacella show high phenotypic intraspecific variability and only a few morphological characters can be used to identify them, so that their taxonomic status is unclear. In this work molecular markers were used to determine if the most frequent forms of the genus observed along the coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina (Nacella magellanica, Nacella deaurata, Nacella delicatissima and Nacella mytilina) are true species, or if some are morphotypes of a single species. Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of the partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and cytochrome b genes showed a polytomy comprising most of the individuals of the genus Nacella analysed. Using cytochrome b, among all species tested, only N. mytilina formed a well-supported clade. Interspecific genetic distances among the four Nacella species were very low and similar to the intraspecific ones. On the contrary, intersimple sequence repeats (ISSRs) fingerprint analyses confirmed the differentiation of N. magellanica, N. deaurata and N. mytilina. The specimens of N. delicatissima were intermixed with the individuals of N. magellanica and N. deaurata, suggesting that N. delicatissima is not a separate species but an infrequent morphotype of each of the other two species. ISSR–PCR was more useful in revealing genetic differences among closely related species than mitochondrial DNA sequences. These results could be explained by recent speciation processes in these limpets of the Southwestern Atlantic.

(Received 23 July 2008; accepted 27 February 2009)


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