First insights towards the population genetic structure and the phylogeographic status of the horse mussel (Modiolus barbatus) from the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

AbstractThe horse mussel Modiolus barbatus is a marine benthic bivalve, distributed mainly in the Mediterranean basin, that constitutes a fishery product of high economic importance and a promising candidate for aquaculture. The current study provides the first insights regarding the genetic profile of M. barbatus populations from the eastern Mediterranean, by analysis of a partial segment of the mitochondrial COI gene in individuals collected from five sampling localities within the Aegean Sea. To the best of our knowledge, the derived haplotypes represent the first DNA barcodes of M. barbatus from the entire Mediterranean region. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis revealed that M. barbatus from the North Sea and M. barbatus from the eastern Mediterranean may not belong to the same species and as a consequence, there might be three species of the genus Modiolus in Europe. On the other hand, eastern Mediterranean M. barbatus haplotypes were found to be more closely related to the Asian-Pacific Modiolus species. All geographic populations analysed displayed high levels of genetic diversity, in terms of haplotype and nucleotide diversity and a considerable number of unique alleles. Divergence among populations was found at generally low levels, corresponding with the majority of pairwise Fst values not being significant. These findings suggest no population structure and high levels of gene flow, a common feature observed in marine bivalves with long pelagic larval phases.