Molecular Systematic of Three Species of Oithona (Copepoda, Cyclopoida) from the Atlantic Ocean: Comparative Analysis Using 28S rDNA

CEPEDA, G. C.; BLANCO-BERCIAL, L.; BUCKLIN, A.; BERÓN, C.; VIÑAS, M.D

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2012 p. 1 - 7

1932-6203

Species of Oithona (Copepoda, Cyclopoida) are highly abundant, ecologically important, and widely distributed throughoutthe world oceans. Although there are valid and detailed descriptions of the species, routine species identifications remainchallenging due to their small size, subtle morphological diagnostic traits, and the description of geographic forms orvarieties. This study examined three species of Oithona (O. similis, O. atlantica and O. nana) occurring in the Argentine sectorof the South Atlantic Ocean based on DNA sequence variation of a 575 base-pair region of 28S rDNA, with comparativeanalysis of these species from other North and South Atlantic regions. DNA sequence variation clearly resolved anddiscriminated the species, and revealed low levels of intraspecific variation among North and South Atlantic populations ofeach species. The 28S rDNA region was thus shown to provide an accurate and reliable means of identifying the speciesthroughout the sampled domain. Analysis of 28S rDNA variation for additional species collected throughout the globalocean will be useful to accurately characterize biogeographical distributions of the species and to examine phylogeneticrelationships among them.