Taxonomy of European Lymnaeidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) in studies with the use of molecular biology techniques. I. Preliminary view on the subgenus Stagnicola Leach, 1830 on the basis of RAPD analysis

Abstract

The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used to study genomic relationships of five lymnaeid species: Lymnaea (Stagnicola) palustris (O.F. Mller, 1774), L. (S.) turricula (Held, 1836), L. (S.) occulta Altogether 253 characters (253 DNA fragments obtained in PCR) were scored and characters were used to create a matrix of pairwise distances between all the pairs of taxa. Distance data UPGMA cluster and Camin-Sokal maximum parsimony analyses were applied for dendrogram construction. The results support the discrimination of all taxa as separate species which was suggested by the structure of their reproductive organs. The taxonomic status of L. occulta (Jack.) as a member of the subgenus Stagnicola Leach, 1830 is discussed.