Publication details
Phylogeny and cryptic diversity of the Gammarus fossarum species complex in the Czech and Slovak Republics: first results
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | The genus Gammarus is the most diverse of epigean freshwater amphipods in Europe and many of its once thought widespread species are actually highly diverse species complexes. G. fossarum, which comprises numerous divergent lineages especially in south-eastern Europe, is no exception. Virtually nothing is known about its diversity in former Czechoslovakia, except that G. fossarum sensu stricto (the type locality lineage) occurs in Southern Bohemia. The first results of our ongoing project that will fill this gap are exciting. We analysed genetic variation from 13 localities along the Czech-Slovak border, and five additional ones across the Bohemian Massif, by sequencing one mitochondrial and three nuclear markers, and estimated their phylogenetic relationships in the wider context of European diversity. The examined populations belong to four different clades: G. fossarum s.s. in the west, and other three lineages at the border. One of these belongs to the diverse south-western Carpathian group, the other two are extremely divergent and basal to the entire species complex. Such a pattern, with basal lineages in the northern part of the range, is in contradiction with the biogeographical paradigm of post-glacial colonization. The G. fossarum complex probably originated in central Europe, and its lineages may have survived Pleistocene in northern refugia. The unexpected “Czechoslovak” diversity is of crucial importance in elucidating its peculiar phylogeographic patterns. |