First Record of the Alien Species <i>Procambarus virginalis</i> Lyko, 2017 in Fresh Waters of Sardinia and Insight into Its Genetic Variability

oleh: Daria Sanna, Ilenia Azzena, Fabio Scarpa, Piero Cossu, Angela Pira, Flavio Gagliardi, Marco Casu

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-06-01

Deskripsi

In the fresh waters of Sardinia (Italy), the non-indigenous crayfish species <i>Procambarus clarkii</i> has been reported from 2005, but, starting from 2019, there have been several reports of a new non-indigenous crayfish in southern and central areas of this Mediterranean island, and its morphology suggests that this species may be the marbled crayfish <i>Procambarus virginalis</i>. Forty-seven individuals of this putative species were analyzed, using the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I as molecular marker to identify this crayfish and investigate the level of genetic variability within the recently established population. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses were carried out on a dataset including sequences from the Sardinian individuals and from all congenerics available in GenBank. Results showed that the new Sardinian crayfish belong to the species <i>P. virginalis</i>. All the sequences belonging to <i>P. virginalis</i> from European countries are identical, with only few exceptions found among Sardinian individuals. In conclusion, this paper highlights the occurrence of a new further alien species in the Sardinian fresh waters, which are already characterized by the high presence of non-indigenous species.