DNA barcoding, ecology and geography of the cryptic species of Aneura pinguis and their relationships with Aneura maxima and Aneura mirabilis (Metzgeriales, Marchantiophyta)

Alina Bączkiewicz; Monika Szczecińska; Jakub Sawicki; Adam Stebel; Katarzyna Buczkowska

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188837

DNA barcoding, ecology and geography of the cryptic species of Aneura pinguis and their relationships with Aneura maxima and Aneura mirabilis (Metzgeriales, Marchantiophyta)

PLoS One. 2017 Dec 5;12(12):e0188837. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188837. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Alina Bączkiewicz¹, Monika Szczecińska², Jakub Sawicki², Adam Stebel³, Katarzyna Buczkowska¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
² Department of Botany and Nature Protection, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Poland.
³ Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland.

Abstract

Aneura pinguis is a thalloid liverwort species with broad geographical distribution. It is composed of cryptic species, however, the number of cryptic species within A. pinguis is not known. Five cpDNA regions (matK, rbcL, rpoC1, trnH-psbA and trnL-trnF) and the entire nuclear ITS region were studied in 130 samples of A. pinguis from different geographical regions. The relationships between the cryptic species of A. pinguis, A. maxima and A. mirabilis were analyzed. All of the examined samples were clustered into 10 clades corresponding to 10 cryptic species of A. pinguis (marked A to J). Aneura mirabilis and A. maxima were nested among different cryptic species of A. pinguis, which indicates that A. pinguis is a paraphyletic taxon. Subgroups were found in cryptic species A, B, C and E. As single barcodes, all tested DNA regions had 100% discriminant power and fulfilled DNA barcode criteria for species identification; however, the only combination detected in all subgroups was trnL-trnF with trnH-psbA or ITS2. The distances between cryptic species were 11- to 35-fold higher than intraspecific distances. In all analyzed DNA regions, the distances between most pairs of cryptic A. pinguis species were higher than between A. maxima and A. mirabilis. All cryptic species of A. pinguis clearly differed in their habitat preferences, which suggests that habitat adaptation could be the main driving force behind cryptic speciation within this taxon.

MeSH terms

DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic*
Ecology*
Genes, Plant*
Geography*
Haplotypes
Hepatophyta / classification
Hepatophyta / genetics*
Phylogeny
Polymerase Chain Reaction

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre, grants no. 2011/01/B/NZ8/00364 (AB, KB, JS) and 2013/09/B/NZ8/03274 (AB, KB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.