Phylogeography and population genetic structure of an exotic invasive brine shrimp, Artemia Leach, 1819 (Crustacea : Anostraca), in Australia

Abstract

Native American Artemia franciscana has become an introduced species in the Old World due to the rapid development of the aquaculture industry in Eurasia. The recent colonisation of A. franciscana in Mediterranean regions and Asia has been well documented, but Australia is a continent where the dispersal of this species is not well understood. In the present study, we sequenced the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and examined the phylogenetic relationships, haplotype network and population genetic structure of Artemia from four geographical localities in Australia and two American native localities. Our results confirmed the colonisation of Australia in all four localities by A. franciscana. First, we document the occurrence of Artemia in Mulgundawa and St Kilda localities in Australia. The Dampier population is a monomorphic population, but there is high genetic variation and a degree of demographic expansion observed in other introduced A. franciscana populations in Australia. This observation suggests an interaction between environmental conditions and adaptive potentials of A. franciscana. Our findings imply that populations from St Kilda and Port Hedland might have originated from a San Francisco Bay source, while the two other locations resulted from admixture between Great Salt Lake and San Francisco Bay sources, perhaps resulting from secondary introduction events.

The Impact of the Colonization of the Invasive American <em>Artemia franciscana</em> (Crustacea: Anostraca) on Genetic Differentiation in the United Arab Emirates (Asia)

“…The paradox between our result and previous study on Al Wathba Wetland Reserve can be referred to technical error using short sequences of COI in the previous study (446 bp vs 604 bp). Regarding to results of the current study, the geographical origin of both UAE populations might be secondary introduction from other Artemia production sources, especially Eastern Asia including Mekong Delta (Vietnam) and Bohai Bay (China) where these are commercially available in aquaculture markets 21,34,41,42 .…”

“…The San Francisco Bay (SFB) and Great Salt Lake (GSL) are the two main sources of Artemia that have usually been used to culture in other saline ecosystems for industrial aquaculture and fishery activates to produce Artemia cysts and biomass 13,20,21,34 , for this reason these populations were considered in this analysis to find out the genetic alterations of the colonized populations in new non-native environments.…”

“…Mitochondrial DNA represented some exceptional characteristics consisting rapid evolutionary rates, maternal origin, and lack of recombination 35,36 . Then mitochondrial markers are important for apprehension the tracing and explanation the source of non-indigenous species in new habitats 20,21,[37][38][39][40] .…”

“…Identical findings also have been found in some Mediterranean invasive populations 45,34 . Asem et al 21 find an equilibrium population of exotic Artemia from Dampier in Australia without genetic variation where population showed single haplotype. As well as other invasive populations in Australia represented different levels of genetic variations as compared with American native populations.…”

“…Due to higher reproductive rate and adaptation ability of A. franciscana 14,15 , this species has been selected to culture in non-indigenous natural and artificial environments for industrial aquaculture and fishery activates, so currently it has a wide geographical distribution in the world containing inland salt lakes, coastal saltworks, salt ponds and lagoons. Now, A. franciscana has been colonized in numerous regions across Eurasia, especially in the Mediterranean 9,[11][12][13][16][17][18][19][20] and Australia 21 .…”