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Genetic and phenoptypic differentiation of zebra mussel populations colonizing Spanish river basins

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Abstract

Zebra mussel populations in Ebro and Mijares Rivers (northern Spain) were analyzed to study the mechanisms by which this aquatic species deals with pollution. Variability analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene and of one nuclear microsatellite were performed for ten populations from the Ebro River and one from the Mijares River. Comparison of these results with those from five additional European populations indicated that the Spanish populations constitute a homogeneous gene pool. Transcriptome analyses of gill samples from a subset of the Spanish populations showed changes on expression levels that correlated with variations in general fitness and loads of heavy metals. The less polluted upstream Ebro populations showed overexpression of mitochondrial and cell proliferation-related genes compared to the more polluted, downstream Ebro populations. Our data indicate that heavy metals were the main factors explaining these transcriptomic patterns, and that zebra mussel is resilient to pollutants (like mercury and organochlorine compounds) proved to be extremely toxic to vertebrates. We propose that zebra mussel populations sharing a common gene pool may acclimate to different levels and forms of pollution through modulations in their transcriptomic profile, although direct selection on genes showing differential expression patterns cannot be ruled out.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Csilla Balogh (Limnologial Reserach Institute of Has, Hungary), Maxence Forcellini (University of Lyon), Elena Tricarico (University of Florence) and Vera Pavlova for providing zebra mussel samples from Hungary, France, Italy and Russia, respectively. We thank also Juan Ginés García Navarro for technical assistance in the molecular biology lab. This work was funded by Grants from the Spanish Ministry of Environment (042/RN08/03.4) and from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM2011-30471-C02-01).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, IDAEA-CSIC, Jordi Girona, 18, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Navarro, Melisa Faria, Carlos Barata & Benjamin Piña

  2. Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal CSIC, 12595, Ribera de Cabanes, Castellón, Spain

    Javier Sánchez-Fontenla, David Cordero, Juan B. Peña & Carlos Saavedra

  3. Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC, Passeig Marítim 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Mercedes Blázquez

  4. Departamento de Biología Funcional y Antropología Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universitat de València, 46100, Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    Olga Ruíz, Rocío Ureña & Amparo Torreblanca

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  1. Anna Navarro
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Correspondence to Benjamin Piña.

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Navarro, A., Sánchez-Fontenla, J., Cordero, D. et al. Genetic and phenoptypic differentiation of zebra mussel populations colonizing Spanish river basins. Ecotoxicology 22, 915–928 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-013-1084-7

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