Genetic barcoding confirms the presence of the neurotoxic sea slug Pleurobranchaea maculata in southwestern Atlantic

OBENAT S; WOOD S; FARIAS NE; SCHWINDT E

NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

RSNZ PUBLISHING

Lugar: Auckland; Año: 2016 vol. 43 p. 292 - 298

0301-4223

This work extends a previous report on the outbreak of an unknownneurotoxic sea slug along the southwestern Atlantic coast byproviding identification to species level. In this study a c. 550 basepair (bp) region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1mitochondrial gene used for genetic barcoding was sequencedfrom three individual slugs sourced from three locations inArgentina. These data, in concert with previous description on themorphology and the presence of a neurotoxin of similar effect ofthat produced by pleurobranchs from New Zealand, confirm theidentity of these sea slugs as Pleurobranchaea maculata. This isthe first record of the species in the Atlantic Ocean, thussuggesting an exotic origin. Given the fast spread of reports in thesouthwestern Atlantic (c. 2000 km of coastline in 6 years) werecommend urgent studies to determine the origin, toxicity,population genetics and impacts on local ecosystems.