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Genetic relationships of the marine invasive crab parasite Loxothylacus panopaei: an analysis of DNA sequence variation, host specificity, and distributional range

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Abstract

Host specificity is a key variable of the niche breath of parasites that can be an important determinant of a parasite’s ability to invade new areas. There is increasing evidence that many parasite species may comprise a variety of genetically variable lineages, which differ in host specificity and geographic range. In this study, we (1) explored the extent of diversity in the invasive parasitic barnacle Loxothylacus panopaei (Rhizocephala) infecting mud crabs (2) examined the geographic origin for the invasive lineage and (3) assessed if further southward spread of the parasite may be impeded. Along the US Atlantic coast, L. panopaei infects different hosts in its invaded range (Chesapeake Bay to north of Cape Canaveral) compared to one portion of the native range in Southeast Florida. This difference was reflected in genetic lineages on two independent loci, mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and nuclear cytochrome c. Both loci were concordant in that they showed one lineage infecting crabs of the genus Panopeus in the native range and one lineage infecting Eurypanopeus depressus and Rhithropanopeus harrisii hosts in the invaded range and in the Gulf of Mexico, thus indicating Gulf of Mexico populations as the most likely source of introduction into Chesapeake Bay. Interestingly, the nuclear marker resolved an additional lineage of parasites infecting panopeid hosts in the native range. All three parasite lineages were well supported, but a decision about species status must await further analyses. Since its introduction in the 1960s, the invasive L. panopaei lineage has expanded its range southward along the US Atlantic coast, now almost reaching the northern limit of native Panopeus-infecting lineages at Cape Canaveral, Florida. We hypothesized that parasite-free E. depressus in Southeast Florida, living in sympatry with infected panopeid populations, might be resistant to infection by the invasive lineage. Our infection experiments rejected this hypothesis, suggesting that any impediment to further southward range expansion might be expected from temperature regimes of the subtropical zoogeographic region south of Cape Canaveral.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank S. Reed, T. and E.-G. Kruse, D. Beissel, S. Altman, P. Rodgers and J. O’Brien for help on field trips and the rest of the staff at SMS at Fort Pierce for general support. Specimens of L. panopaei from Fort Myers were kindly provided by G. Tolley. We are grateful to D. Felder for species identifications of panopaeid crabs and to W. Herrnkind for sampling advice for the Florida panhandle. Christoph Bleidorn, associate editor Carol A. Stepien and three anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments to drafts of the manuscript. This work was supported by a ‘Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce’ from the Smithsonian Institution to I. K. and by Smithsonian Marine Science Network funds to A. H. H.

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  1. Inken Kruse

    Present address: Benthic Ecology, Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, IFM-GEOMAR, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105, Kiel, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smithsonian Marine Station, Ft. Pierce, FL, 34949, USA

    Inken Kruse

  2. Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 208 Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Matthew P. Hare

  3. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 617 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD, 21037, USA

    Anson H. Hines

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  1. Inken Kruse
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Correspondence to Inken Kruse.

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Kruse, I., Hare, M.P. & Hines, A.H. Genetic relationships of the marine invasive crab parasite Loxothylacus panopaei: an analysis of DNA sequence variation, host specificity, and distributional range. Biol Invasions 14, 701–715 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-011-0111-y

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