Genetic Diversity of Copepod Limnocalanus macrurus from Russian Arctic Seas

Abstract

The diversity, phylogenetic relationships, and demographic history of glacial relict copepod Limnocalanus macrurus from estuaries of large Siberian Arctic rivers (the Ob, Khatanga, Lena, Indigirka, and Kolyma) are studied using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene (COI mtDNA). It is shown that Siberian populations of Limnocalanus macrurus, together with those from the Canadian Arctic and Baltic Sea, belong to a single Palearctic phylogenetic lineage, which probably survived in one refugium during the Last Glacial Maximum and then rapidly expanded within the Arctic about 21 000–7500 years ago. The presence of common haplotypes in L. macrurus from three Arctic seas and the lack of differences in haplotype frequencies may be associated with recent origin of populations or current gene flow between them.