ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR TAXONOMY OF Oithona spp. (Copepoda, Cyclopoida, Oithonidae) IN THE ARGENTINE SEA

CEPEDA, G. D.; VIÑAS, M. D.; BERÓN C. M.

Connecticut, USA

Workshop; DNA Barcoding of Marine Biodiversity Symposium; 2009

Marine Sciences and Technology Center

Oithonids are among the most common and numerous zooplankters, most of them are considered cosmopolitan. Detailed description of the species belonging to this group were given. Despite of this, there are still many uncertainties concerning taxonomic and ecological aspects. To overcome the difficulties associated with species identification, genetics characters can provide reliable means of taxonomic discrimination. In this way, it has been shown that species that apparently had a cosmopolitan distribution have different distribution ranges. For this kind of analysis the 5´end of the large subunit (28S) of rRNA is a powerful taxonomic indicator, since it contains D1 and D2 domains sufficiently variable to distinguish between  most closely related species [3]. In this study, we proposed to advance into the specific identity corroboration of the two main species of Oithona occurring in the Argentine Sea.