Origin of Spanish invasion by the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771) revealed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting

Abstract

The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha is an aquatic nuisance invasive species originally native to the Ponto-Caspian region where it is found in lakes and delta areas of large rivers draining into the Black and Caspian seas. The dispersal of D. polymorpha began at the end of the 18th century, at a time when shipping trade become increasingly important and many canals were built for linking different navigable river systems in Europe. Over the past 200 years, zebra mussels spread to most of the lakes, rivers and waterways in Europe by a combination of natural and anthropogenic dispersal mechanisms. D. polymorpha invaded Spain around 2001, being found for the first time in the Riba-roja reservoir at the lower part of the Ebro River, NorthEast Spain. The relatively late invasion of Spain was most likely caused by the presence of the Pyrenees, which isolated the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of the European continent, and acted as a barrier to the dispersal of D. polymorpha. In recent studies, 123Biol Invasions (2009( ) 11:2147( -2159( DOI 10.1007 molecular genetic methods have successfully been used to determine phylo-geographic relationships, which may reflect invasion corridors and can help retrace source populations. Zebra mussels from populations in Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania and North America were analyzed using PCR based amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)-fingerprinting to determine the source population of D. polymorpha in Spain. The phylogenetic analyses and pair-wise genetic distances revealed that the recent invasion of zebra mussels in Spain is most likely from France.

Patterns of genetic variation in invasive populations of Gunnera tinctoria: an analysis at three spatial scales

“…It would appear, therefore, that the process of invasion does have the potential to alter how genetic variation is partitioned within and between populations but that there is no consistent pattern that can be specifically associated with invasion. This result is not surprising since there is generally considerable disparity in how genetic variation is partitioned among invasive and introduced plant populations when compared to native populations (Mueller and Wolfenbarger 1999;Naghavi et al 2007;Wen-Kun et al 2007;Rajagopal et al 2009;Chun et al 2009). …”

“…3)). Population symbols are as in Table 1 ( Rajagopal et al 2009). Fragments smaller than 250 bp were almost entirely monomorphic and formed a dense pattern; therefore, they were also excluded from the analysis (Vekemans et al 2002).…”

“…These processes include founder effects, genetic drift, gene flow, and adaptive ''Darwinian'' evolution (Barrett and Richardson 1986;Linhart and Grant 1996;Ward 2006), none of which are mutually exclusive. AFLP markers are accepted as an appropriate tool for investigating the role of stochastic processes, such as founder effects, genetic drift, and gene flow, in shaping the genetic structure of populations (Mueller and Wolfenbarger 1999;Genton et al 2005;Naghavi et al 2007;Wen-Kun et al 2007;Chun et al 2009;Rajagopal et al 2009). However, the contribution of adaptive evolutionary processes to the genetic structure of the invasive G. tinctoria populations was not directly addressed in this study since AFLP markers are not ideal for distinguishing between adaptive and neutral genetic changes (Merilä and Crnokrak 2001;McKay and Latta 2002).…”

Patterns and Rate of Growth of Studies in Invasion Ecology

“…Mytilus galloprovincialis has an extensive and lengthy record of introductions to marine coastal habitats globally (Carlton 1999 ). Dreissena polymorpha is native to fresh and brackish waters of the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas (see May et al 2006 ), though it has spread via canals and shipping beginning in the 18th century throughout much of western and eastern Europe; more recently the species has consolidated its range in Europe, with, for example, initial colonization of Spain and Ireland and enhanced distribution in Italy (Bij de Vaate et al 2002 ;Lancioni & Gaino 2006 ;Rajagopal et al 2009 ). The species colonized Lake Erie in the Laurentian Great Lakes no later than 1986 (Carlton 2008 ), and has since spread widely across eastern North America including most major river systems and hundreds of inland lakes (Drake & Bossenbroek 2004 ).…”

Contributions from limnology to reservoir management

“…Es el caso del mejillón cebra (Dreissena polymorpha), que se observó por primera vez en el tramo inferior del Ebro, probablemente asociada a la introducción de especies de peces alóctonas como el siluro o a través de embarcaciones infectadas desde Francia (Rajagopal et al, 2009). Esta especie se ha extendido por gran parte de la cuenca del Ebro y ha llegado a saltar incluso los límites de la cuenca, como muestran las observaciones en el embalse de Sitjart en Valencia o Bermejales en Granada.…”