Genetic diversification and life-cycle of the polychaete Capitella spp. from the English Channel: evidence for sympatric cryptic species and alternative reproductive strategies

• Published in: Marine Biology
• Main Authors: Boidin-Wichlacz, Céline, Jollivet, Didier, Papot, Claire, Roisin, Lolita, Massol, François, Tasiemski, Aurélie
• Other Authors: Centre d’Infection et d’Immunité de Lille - INSERM U 1019 - UMR 9017 - UMR 8204 (CIIL), Institut Pasteur de Lille, Réseau International des Instituts Pasteur (RIIP)-Réseau International des Instituts Pasteur (RIIP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université de Lille-Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire CHU Lille (CHRU Lille)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDV.BA.ZI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Invertebrate Zoology; [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; Greenland
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03836795; https://hal.science/hal-03836795/document; https://hal.science/hal-03836795/file/Boidin-Wichlacz%20et%20al%20MarBiol.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03972-2

International audience Polychaetes belonging to the Capitella genus are known to represent a complex of opportunistic cryptic species that dominates the macrobenthos of organically enriched sediments such as muddy areas particularly rich in sulfide. With the exception of the species, Capitella capitata (Fabricius) from West Greenland and Capitella spp. from the European Atlantic coast, have never been accurately characterized and were often reported as capitata in the literature. The life cycle of this European worm has not been described properly either, despite its widespread use as bio-indicators in ecological studies. The present study provides here the first morphological description and genetic diversification of Capitella collected along the Brittany coast and the English Channel up to the entrance of the North Sea. Both morphological and molecular data are congruent and supported the co-occurrence of cryptic species of Capitella at the tip of Brittany. The most frequent French mt lineages, C-Channel1, C-Atlantic and C-Channel2 although well distinct from Capitella teleta, are also divergent but closer to C. capitata initially described from Greenland. The most abundant species (C-Channel1) was isolated and reared in the laboratory to describe its life cycle in order to predict its dispersal ability and ecological success in the sulfidic muddy habitats of the French harbors.