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Genetic variation in North American crayfish species introduced to Europe and the prevalence of the crayfish plague pathogen in their populations
Filipová, Lenka ; Petrusek, Adam (advisor) ; Diéguez-Uribeondo, Javier (referee) ; Trontejl, Peter (referee)
- ABSTRACT (IN ENGLISH) - Biological invasions by crustaceans represent a serious threat for native species in Europe. In my thesis I focus on non-indigenous freshwater crayfish introduced to Europe and their parasite Aphanomyces astaci, the pathogen of the crayfish plague. The thesis consists of four already published first-author papers (chapters I, II, IV and V), two first-author manuscripts (chapters III and VI), and one paper which I co-authored (chapter VII). The first part (chapters I-V) focuses on genetic variation in North American crayfish introduced to Europe. We showed that in two crayfish species, both successful invaders in Europe, genetic variation differs significantly, reflecting their different colonization histories on the continent. The spiny-cheek crayfish Orconectes limosus was likely introduced to Europe just once, in small numbers (90 individuals). Variation at the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) level in the spiny-cheek crayfish in Europe is much lower compared to North America (chapter I), although some variation was revealed by nuclear markers in its Central European populations (chapter II). In contrast, the signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus was introduced to Europe several times, in large numbers. Its European populations are highly diverse genetically and belong to a single...
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