TY - CHAP

T1 - Can copulatory preferences of littorinids (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda) be explained by mucus trail chemical composition?

AU - Lobov, Arseniy A.

AU - Maltseva, Arina L.

AU - Varfolomeeva, Marina A.

AU - Tikanova, Polina O.

AU - Mikhailova, Natalia A.

AU - Granovitch, Andrey I.

PY - 2014/2/9

Y1 - 2014/2/9

N2 - Two groups of morphologically and phylogeneticallyclosely related species of Littorina marine mollusks, the‘obtusata’ (L. obtusata, L. fabalis) and the ‘saxatilis’ (L.saxatilis, L. arcana, L. compressa) inhabit sympatricallythe intertidal zone of the North Atlantic. Thesespecies are characterized by similar breeding seasonand reproductive behavior, thus, the existence ofmechanisms preventing interspecific breeding andsupporting reproductive isolation might be expected.The characteristics of a mucus trail made by a snailduring locomotion were suggested as a key cue fora mate choice. Mucus trail chemical compositionswere analyzed for males and females of each of fivesister species and L. littorea as an outgroup usingliquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).Collected from wild populations snails were placedindividually into Petri dishes and left to creep.Mucus was collected and LC-MS-analyzed. Jaccard’sdissimilarities coefficients based on presence-absencedata were used for samples clustering. Considerablevariation in mucus composition was revealed amongindividuals of either different or the same species.Only five compounds among 108 used for analysiswere common to all examined samples. Two of themproved to be halogenated alkaloids of yet unknownstructure. We failed to find any differences betweenmucus compositions of conspecific males, femalesand immature or infected individuals in all fivespecies of the “obtusata” and “saxatilis” groups,but such differences were revealed for L. littorea.Comparative interspecies analysis showed that L.saxatilis / L. arcana pair and L. obtusata formed theseparate sister-clusters, while L. compressa, L. fabalisand L. littorea – a mixed cluster, outer to three speciesmentioned above. Obtained results are compatiblewith the hypothesis of a mucus trail as a species-specific cue for a mate choice. This could representthe molecular background for possible mechanismsof prezygotic reproductive isolation in Littorinasympatric populations. However, obtained dataof mucus chemical composition cannot explain thecopulative preference to females as mates, observedin nature (224 copulative pairs collected from wildpopulations were evaluated for conspecific mating).This work was supported by RFBR grant 15-04-08210 and the Research Center “Molecular and CellTechnologies” of St. Petersburg State University.

AB - Two groups of morphologically and phylogeneticallyclosely related species of Littorina marine mollusks, the‘obtusata’ (L. obtusata, L. fabalis) and the ‘saxatilis’ (L.saxatilis, L. arcana, L. compressa) inhabit sympatricallythe intertidal zone of the North Atlantic. Thesespecies are characterized by similar breeding seasonand reproductive behavior, thus, the existence ofmechanisms preventing interspecific breeding andsupporting reproductive isolation might be expected.The characteristics of a mucus trail made by a snailduring locomotion were suggested as a key cue fora mate choice. Mucus trail chemical compositionswere analyzed for males and females of each of fivesister species and L. littorea as an outgroup usingliquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).Collected from wild populations snails were placedindividually into Petri dishes and left to creep.Mucus was collected and LC-MS-analyzed. Jaccard’sdissimilarities coefficients based on presence-absencedata were used for samples clustering. Considerablevariation in mucus composition was revealed amongindividuals of either different or the same species.Only five compounds among 108 used for analysiswere common to all examined samples. Two of themproved to be halogenated alkaloids of yet unknownstructure. We failed to find any differences betweenmucus compositions of conspecific males, femalesand immature or infected individuals in all fivespecies of the “obtusata” and “saxatilis” groups,but such differences were revealed for L. littorea.Comparative interspecies analysis showed that L.saxatilis / L. arcana pair and L. obtusata formed theseparate sister-clusters, while L. compressa, L. fabalisand L. littorea – a mixed cluster, outer to three speciesmentioned above. Obtained results are compatiblewith the hypothesis of a mucus trail as a species-specific cue for a mate choice. This could representthe molecular background for possible mechanismsof prezygotic reproductive isolation in Littorinasympatric populations. However, obtained dataof mucus chemical composition cannot explain thecopulative preference to females as mates, observedin nature (224 copulative pairs collected from wildpopulations were evaluated for conspecific mating).This work was supported by RFBR grant 15-04-08210 and the Research Center “Molecular and CellTechnologies” of St. Petersburg State University.

M3 - Conference abstracts

SP - 11

BT - Molluscan Forum 2016

ER -