A layover in Europe: Reconstructing the invasion route of asexual lineages of a New Zealand snail to North America

Abstract

Non‐native invasive species are threatening ecosystems and biodiversity worldwide. High genetic variation is thought to be a critical factor for invasion success. Accordingly, the global invasion of a few clonal lineages of the gastropod Potamopyrgus antipodarum is thus both puzzling and has the potential to help illuminate why some invasions succeed while others fail. Here, we used SNP markers and a geographically broad sampling scheme (N = 1617) including native New Zealand populations and invasive North American and European populations to provide the first widescale population genetic assessment of the relationships between and among native and invasive P. antipodarum. We used a combination of traditional and Bayesian molecular analyses to demonstrate that New Zealand populations harbour very high diversity relative to the invasive populations and are the source of the two main European genetic lineages. One of these two European lineages was in turn the source of at least one of the two main North American genetic clusters of invasive P. antipodarum, located in Lake Ontario. The other widespread North American group had a more complex origin that included the other European lineage and two New Zealand clusters. Altogether, our analyses suggest that just a small handful of clonal lineages of P. antipodarum were responsible for invasion across continents. Our findings provide critical information for prevention of additional invasions and control of existing invasive populations and are of broader relevance towards understanding the establishment and evolution of asexual populations and the forces driving biological invasion.

Invasive freshwater snails form novel microbial relationships

“…In other systems, it has been shown that invaders have lower microbial diversity and/or a subset of microbes relative to that present in native populations (Minard et al, 2015;Zepeda-Paulo et al, 2018). Invasive P. antipodarum populations feature low genotypic diversity relative to the native range (Donne et al, 2020;Dybdahl & Drown, 2011;Verhaegen et al, 2018) and mitochondrial haplotypes of invaders represent genetic subsets of native mitochondrial haplotype diversity (Städler et al, 2005). However, this genetic subsampling in inva- microbiome down to specialized taxa (Foster et al, 2017).…”

Matching a snail’s pace: Successful use of environmental DNA techniques to detect early stages of invasion by the destructive New Zealand mud snail

“…Hood, pers comm. ), Pennsylvania (R. Morgan, pers comm., Levri et al 2020), While asexual NZMS harbor a great deal of genetic diversity (Jokela et al 2003), only a handful of NZMS clones have been successful invaders (Städler et al 2005, Alonso and Castro-Díez 2012, Donne et al 2020).…”

“…As these alterations continue, predicting outcomes, mitigating damages, and restoring the native environment and community will become increasingly difficult. Because the western US1 population has existed at least since 1987 (Bowler 1991), the invasion in Pennsylvania is likely a secondary invasion originating via human-mediated transport of individuals from the western US (also see Donne et al . 2020).…”

“…These are likely separate invasions(Donne et al 2020): the US1 haplotype matches haplotype 37 (Genbank AY570216,Neiman and Lively 2004) found in Lake Taupo on the North Island of New Zealand, while the US2 haplotype matches haplotype 22 (Genbank AY570201, Neiman and Lively 2004; 2% sequence divergence from the US1 haplotype,Dybdahl and Drown 2011) found in lakes Gunn and Te Anau at the southeastern tip of New Zealand(Neiman and Lively 2004). The US2 haplotype also matches the invasive European A mitochondrial haplotype(Dybdahl and Drown 2011), indicating a possible secondary invasion originating with the successful invasive population in Europe (also seeDonne et al 2020). An additional mitochondrial haplotype was discovered at a single site in lower densities alongside US1, US3 (Genbank HG680431, <0.2% sequence divergence from the US2 mitochondrial haplotype).…”

Intraspecific genetic variation for anesthesia success in a New Zealand freshwater snail

“…We here describe important steps forward in identifying an effective anesthesia technique for Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail model system that is a prominent model system for the evolution of sexual reproduction (e.g., Neiman et al 2011), ecotoxicology (e.g., Geiß et al 2017), invasion biology (e.g., Donne et al 2020), and host-parasite interactions (e.g., Bankers et al 2017). Studies of P. antipodarum often incorporate tissue manipulation (e.g., tentacle severing as a test of tissue regeneration; Krois et al 2013) or require determination of male vs. female status (e.g., Jalinsky et al 2020).…”