Does genetic introgression influence monogenean parasite community in the Barbus hybrid zone of the southern France?
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | At the end of the last century, natural hybridization between two cyprinid species common barbel (Barbus barbus) and mediterranean barbel (B. meridionalis) was reported in the southern France. Our study was aimed to investigate the composition of monogenean parasite communities in sympatric and allopatric populations of B. barbus and B. meridionalis in the river systems of the southern France. In contrast to allopatric populations, we expect more similar composition of monogenean parasite communities in sympatric populations due to the possible parasite transmission through contact of native and immigrant species. Our first analyses conducted on Dactylogyrus species indicate the host specific occurrence of D. dyki in pure B. meridionalis populations. On the other hand, D. malleus seems to be most abundant and prevalent in allopatric populations of B. barbus. In all sympatric populations, D. carpathicus represents the most prevalent and abundant Dactylogyrus species, while it occurs less frequently and at low abundances in allopatric populations of both species when compared to sympatric populations. Paradiplozoon homoin, the only representative species of Diplozoidae detected in the studied populations, achieved the highest abundance in sympatric populations. On the hand, this parasite species occurred only in one of all allopatric populations of B. meridionalis and it was even not detected in the allopatric populations of B. barbus. For Gyrodactylus parasites, habitat conditions rather than host specificity seem to have impact on the prevalence and abundance of this group of parasites within particular localities. Using de novo developed microsatellite markers, the association between host specificity and the degree of gene introgression has been applied in B. barbus and B. meridionalis hybrid zone. |
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