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Vol. 52, 2013
A new intertidal Brachionus
and intrageneric phylogenetic relationships among Brachionus as revealed by allometry
and CO1-ITS1 gene analysis
Dae-Sik
Hwang1, Hans-Uwe Dahms2, Heum Gi Park3
and Jae-Seong Lee1,4*
1Department
of Molecular and Environmental Bioscience, Graduate School, Hanyang
University, Seoul 133-791, South Korea
2Department of Life Science, College of Natural
Sciences, Sangmyung University, Seoul 110-743, South Korea
3Faculty of Marine Bioscience and Technology, College
of Life Sciences, Kangnung-Wonju National University, Gangneung
210-702, South Korea
4Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences,
Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, South Korea
Abstract
Background: The rotifer genus
Brachionus is distributed worldwide along a gradient from freshwater to
seawater habitats. This genus is recognized as a suitable organism for
testing environmental and evolutionary hypotheses. Here we present the
description of a new species and the phylogenetic relationship within
the genus Brachionus as revealed by morphometric allometry of two
representatives and CO1-ITS1
gene analysis of five representatives belonging to Brachionus
distributed in the fresh and seawaters of Korea, Japan, and China.
Results: Similarities of populations were studied
using nuclear rDNA ITS1
sequences from Brachionus spp. collected from different geographical
areas of Far East Asia. The phylogeographic analysis of nuclear DNA
ITS1 and mitochondrial CO1
sequences showed that Brachionus from South Korea formed five distinct
clades according to their geographic origin. Interspecific differences
suggest that Brachionus
species established on conventional morphological characters also forms
five separate clades. When ITS1-CO1
of the Asian specimens was compared with representatives of Brachionus
worldwide, a high genotypic similarity was found. However, they
slightly differed between localities.
Conclusions: This study sets a
first step for an integrative morphological and molecular
characterization of the diversity contained within the ecologically and
economically important rotifer genus Brachionus.
Key words: Rotifera; Brachionus; rDNA ITS1; CO1; Morphometry; Phylogenetics.
*Correspondence: E-mail: jslee2@hanyang.ac.kr
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