Species diversity and phylogeny of Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) parasites in Iberian Peninsula
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | The epicontinental fauna of Iberia is strongly influenced by the geographical history of the Peninsula. Possibilities for dispersion of the organisms in this region were (and still are) limited, due to the geographical isolation caused by Pyrenees and Strait of Gibraltar, nevertheless, the latter has always been more likely bridge rather enabling migration than being a barrier for North Africa and Iberian fauna. This isolation led to the evolution of the high degree of the endemism in South Europe. Regarding the freshwater fish fauna of Iberian Peninsula, the number of families is rather low in comparison to other southern European Peninsulas, with the most species belonging to the family Cyprinidae. Representatives of this fish family serve as host for several monogenean taxa, including dactylogyrids, gyrodactylids and diplozoids. Parasites of genus Dactylogyrus exhibit narrow host specificity and their distribution is limited only on cyprinid fish. General hypothesis is that each individual cyprinid species is parasitized by its own Dactylogyrus species. Due to the narrow host specificity the evolutionary history of Dactylogyrus is intimately linked to the phylogeny and historical dispersion of cyprinids. Strong coevolutionary signal between these two taxa was revealed in the several regions across Europe. Therefore, we can expect similar pattern of Dactylogyrus – cyprinids coevolution in the Iberian Peninsula. Over years 2016 and 2017 we collected Dactylogyrus parasites from 28 host species in selected river basins across Portugal and Spain (87.5 % of all endemic cyprinids in this region). In total, 21 Dactylogyrus species were identified (14 species potentially new for science). Endemic cyprinids were parasitized by 1–5 Dactylogyrus species, where the highest parasite species richness was observed on the hosts belonging to genus Luciobarbus. Majority of potentially new species were collected from congeneric Squalius (e.g. S. aradensis, S. carolitertii, S. pyraneicus and S. torgalensis). Reconstruction of evolutionary history, based on the DNA sequences of ribosomal subunits, revealed that Iberian Dactylogyrus form 4 phylogenetic clades. While Dactylogyrus spp. of Iberian Squalius are phylogenetically closer to the Dactylogyrus spp. of Alburnus, Alburnoides and Telestes from other European regions, Dactylogyrus parasitizing Parachondrostoma and Pseudochondrostoma clustered together with the Dactylogyrus of Barbus spp. Unlike other European regions, where congeneric Barbus share same Dactylogyrus species, Iberian Barbus haasi harbour Dactylogyrus species common for local Luciobarbus (e.g. D. bocageii, D. mascomai or D. lenkoranoides). Subsequent phylogenetic reconstruction of the endemic Dactylogyrus species parasitizing Iberian fish from tribus Barbini outlined their multiple origin in this region. Additionally, we collected D. polyepidis from new host Achondrostoma arcasii. This species is morphologically similar to the D. vistulae, which is considered as the Dactylogyrus species parasitizing the widest host range. Nevertheless, D. polyepidis appears to be endemic i.e. this species is distributed only on a few cyprinid species in the Iberian Peninsula. |
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