Cryptic species and host specificity in the bryozoan-associated hydrozoan Zanclea divergens (Hydrozoa, Zancleidae)

Autor(en)
Davide Maggioni, Andrea Schiavo, Andrew Ostrovsky, Davide Seveso, Paolo Galli, Roberto Arrigoni, Michael Berumen, Francesca Benzoni
Abstrakt

Zanclea divergens is a tropical hydrozoan living in symbiotic association with bryozoans and currently reported from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Maldives. Here, we used an integrative approach to assess the morphomolecular diversity of the species across the Indo-Pacific. Phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses based on seven mitochondrial and nuclear loci revealed four well-supported molecular lineages corresponding to cryptic species, and representing a Pacific clade, an Indian clade, and two Red Sea clades. Since the general polyp morphology was almost identical in all samples, the nematocyst capsules were measured and analysed to search for possible fine-scale differences, and their statistical treatment revealed a significant difference in terms of length and width among the clades investigated. All Zanclea divergens specimens were specifically associated with cheilostome bryozoans belonging to the genus Celleporaria. The Pacific and Indian clades were associated with Celleporaria sp. and C. vermiformis, respectively, whereas both Red Sea lineages were associated with C. pigmentaria. Nevertheless, the sequencing of host bryozoans revealed that one of the Red Sea hydrozoan clades is associated with two morphologically undistinguishable, but genetically divergent, bryozoan species. Overall, our results show that Z. divergens is a species complex composed of morphologically cryptic lineages showing partially disjunct distributions and host specificity. The presence of two sympatric lineages living on the same host species reveal complex dynamics of diversification, and future research aimed at understanding their diversification process will likely improve our knowledge on the mechanisms of speciation among currently sympatric
cryptic species.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Paläontologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
Journal
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Band
151
Anzahl der Seiten
10
ISSN
1055-7903
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106893
Publikationsdatum
10-2020
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
106053 Zoogeographie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Molecular Biology
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/32a615cf-7819-46d8-898b-eebf51e3f204