Identification of Attheyella nordenskioldii (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) in Lake Baikal using molecular genetic methods

• Published in: Zoosystematica Rossica
• Main Authors: Fefilova, Elena B., Alekseeva, Tatyana M., Popova, Elizaveta I., Golubev, Maksim A., Bakashkina, Aleksandra S., Velegzhaninov, Ilya O., Novikov, Aleksandr A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: harpacticoids; Lake Baikal; nucleotide sequences; COI; phylogenetic tree; morphological variability; Copepoda; Canthocamptidae; Canthocamptus gibba; Attheyella nordenskioldii; lena river; Tundra; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.31610/zsr/2023.32.1.124

The results of molecular genetic analysis of the widespread holarctic harpacticoid species Attheyella nordenskioldii (Lilljeborg, 1902) from Lake Baikal are presented for the first time. Until recently, this species was recorded from Baikal and the rivers flowing into the lake as its junior synonym Canthocamptus gibba Okuneva, 1983, which was considered endemic to Baikal. Our research is based on the material from samples of meiobenthos collected from Lake Baikal (including the type locality of C. gibba ), waterbodies of the Baikal area, other regions of Siberia (delta of the Lena River, Putorana Plateau, Western Sayan Mountains, Transbaikalia) and Europe (Bolshezemelskaya tundra). A comparison of the Baikalian specimens of A. nordenskioldii with those from other above-mentioned regions by COI nucleotide sequences showed that they belong to the same species (genetic distances between the specimens from different populations were 0.0016–0.065). Variability is shown in the length of the copulatory duct of A. nordenskioldii , previously indicated to differentiate this species from C. gibba , as well as in other characters of the fifth leg of female.