JPR Advance Access originally published online on September 6, 2005
Journal of Plankton Research 2005 27(9):895-907; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbi063
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The use of a multidisciplinary approach for the characterization of a diploid parthenogenetic Artemia population from Torre Colimena (Apulia, Italy)
1 Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e DellUomo, Universita la Sapienza, Viale Dell Universita 32, 00185 Rome, Italy, 2 Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece, 3 Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal, 12595 Torre la Sal, Castellon, Spain and 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Tecnologiche ed Ambientali, Universita di Lecce, via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
* Corresponding Author: kappasi{at}hol.gr
Received April 18, 2005; accepted in principle July 26, 2005; accepted for publication August 31, 2005; published online September 6, 2005
Communicating editor: K.J. Flynn
A parthenogenetic Artemia population from Torre Colimena, southern Italy, originally reported in 1998, is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach including cyst and naupliar biometry, morphometry of adults, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of brood pouch, cytogenetics and 16S rRNA PCR-RFLP analysis. We confirmed parthenogenetic status, inferred ploidy level and determined phenotypic and molecular relationships of this population through comparisons with other asexual Artemia strains as well as bisexual species found (A. salina) or introduced (A. franciscana) in the Mediterranean basin. Cyst and naupliar sizes for Torre Colimena are among the smallest recorded for asexual Artemia while the opposite is true for chorion thickness. Discriminant analysis of adult body measurements shows increased differentiation (89.5% for the first four out of the twelve functions produced) from tetraploid parthenogenetic strains and bisexual species (A. salina and A. franciscana). Scanning electron micrographs of brood pouch reveal the characteristic morphology of asexual strains, while chromosome observations of instar-I nauplii unequivocally establish diploidy. Restriction patterns give evidence that the Torre Colimena population shares an identical set of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms with a diploid Spanish parthenogenetic strain and it is well differentiated from other tetraploid as well as bisexual auto- and allochthonous strains (A. salina and A. franciscana) from the Mediterranean. The present study may serve as a reference methodological framework for multidisciplinary characterizations and biodiversity assessments in the genus Artemia.