Research Article |
Corresponding author: Lyubov S. Kravtsova ( lk@lin.irk.ru ) Academic editor: James Reimer
© 2020 Tatiana E. Peretolchina, Igor V. Khanaev, Ilya V. Enushchenko, Dmitry Y. Sherbakov, Lyubov S. Kravtsova.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Peretolchina TE, Khanaev IV, Enushchenko IV, Sherbakov DY, Kravtsova LS (2020) The diversity of the Baikal lineage of Hydra oligactis Pallas, 1766: molecular and morphological evidence. ZooKeys 912: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.912.46898
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In this paper, molecular analyses of Baikal hydras from the ‘oligactis group’, based on COI and ITS1–5.8S–ITS2, and morphological analysis of their holotrichous isorhizas, were performed. Low genetic diversity and shared haplotypes were found between Hydra oligactis Pallas, 1766 and Hydra baikalensis Swarczewsky, 1923 specimens, which is evidence of the mixing of these lineages. Genetic distances among all Baikal hydras (0.006) were less than the interspecific distances of other hydras. The size of hydras and proportions of their holotrichous isorhizas varied depending on microhabitat and environmental conditions. Our combined molecular and morphological approach proves that H. baikalensis is synonymous with H. oligactis
taxonomy, holotrichous isorhizas, phylogeny, Baikal hydras
Hydra is a member of the ancient phylum Cnidaria, class Hydrozoa, order Hydroida, family Hydridae. Freshwater representatives of Hydra inhabit virtually all zoogeographical regions except the Pacific Ocean Islands and Antarctica (
Of the 80 Hydra species names described in the world only 12 to 15 are valid (
The aim of our study was to verify the identity of H. oligactis and H. baikalensis using both morphological and molecular data.
Hydras were collected by scuba divers along southwestern littoral areas (Bolshie Koty – 51°54.04'N, 105°04.08'E, Sobolev Cape – 51°54.20'N, 105°10.18'E, Listvennichniy Bay – 51°51.24'N, 104°51.61'E) of Lake Baikal at depths of 5 to 18 meters, together with dying Porifera and Nitella algae, and by hand from the eastern shores (Posolskiy Sor – 51°57.21'N, 106°05.65'E, Barguzinskiy Bay – 53°16.65'N, 108°44.01'E, Chivyrkuiskiy Bay – 53°38.43'N, 109°04.03'E) of Lake Baikal at a depth of 1 meter, together with the aquatic plants Potamogeton perfoliatus Linnaeus, 1753 and Potamogeton lucens Linnaeus, 1753. Typically, representatives of Hydra were brought live into the laboratory, but some samples were fixed in 80% ethanol in the field.
Morphological studies of the cnidome (stenoteles, desmonemes, holotrichous and atrichous isorhizas) were carried out using an Olympus CX22 microscope with 1000-fold magnification under oil immersion. Morphometric measurements of holotrichous isorhizas were made with the Image-Pro program. Hydra specimens were identified according to keys provided by
DNA was extracted from a single live or fixed individual as described by
All PCR reactions were performed in a final volume of 15 μL using 2-Red PCR mix (10 X PCR buffer, 50 mM MgCI2 and 0.02 unit/ μL Taq DNA polymerase). The PCR amplification conditions were as follows: denaturation at 94 °C for 5 min, 30 cycles at 94 °C for 30 sec, 50 °C for 45 sec, 72 °C for 2 min, and a final elongation step at 72 °C for 10 min. Direct sequencing of forward sequences was performed using an ABI 3130 automated sequencer (Research and Production Company “SYNTOL”, Moscow, Russia).
The DNA sequences obtained were aligned using default settings in CLUSTAL W (
Phylogenetic analyses were performed using MRBAYES v.3.2 (
In total, we produced 30 COI sequences (603 bp long) and 30 ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 sequences (up to 710 bp long). Inspection of the Baikal hydra sequences revealed nine unique haplotypes for the COI gene fragment (shared haplotypes were found in all sampling localities) and three unique haplotypes for the ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 sequences.
The consensus tree topology based on COI (27 unique haplotypes) indicated that Baikal H. oligactis and H. baikalensis did not form separate clades, but instead were clustered together with representatives of Hydra robusta Itô, 1947 from Japan and China and H. oligactis from Japan and Europe, forming a neighboring clade with the majority of hydras from Western Europe and North America (Fig.
Bayesian phylogenetic tree based on COI (A) and ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 unique haplotype sequences. Posterior probabilities (>0.5) are given at nodes. Tip names with ‘_o’ belong to H. oligactis specimens and those with ‘_b’ belong to H. baikalensis specimens. Tip names marked in grey color indicate nucleotide sequences from GenBank.
Mean pairwise p-distances based on COI sequences of Hydra species are given in Table
Pairwise p-distances between COI sequences of different species of the genus Hydra. Within group mean pairwise distances are in bold.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1 – H. oligactis (Baikal) | 0.006 | ||||
2 – H. oligactis | 0.030 | 0.018 | |||
3 – H. robusta | 0.017 | 0.035 | 0.017 | ||
4 – H. oxycnida | 0.103 | 0.101 | 0.103 | 0.040 | |
5 – H. canadensis | 0.101 | 0.103 | 0.105 | 0.105 | 0.010 |
In our collections, hydras with a length/width ratio (L:W) of holotrichous isorizas > 2 were identified as H. oligactis and hydras with L:W ≤ 2 were identified as H. baikalensis, following
Site | Length, μm | Width, μm | L:W | n |
Chivirkuiskiy Bay | 9.46±0.17 | 3.90±0.07 | 2.44±0.06 | 17 |
Barguzinskiy Bay | 9.35±0.15 | 3.81±0.06 | 2.46±0.04 | 17 |
Lystvenichniy | 8.26±0.18 | 4.04±0.08 | 2.06±0.06 | 20 |
Bolshie Koty | 8.42±0.10 | 4.24±0.09 | 2.02±0.04 | 42 |
Sobolev | 7.74±0.06 | 4.19±0.07 | 1.85±0.03 | 11 |
Posolskiy Sor | 10.04±0.19 | 4.24±0.08 | 2.38±0.05 | 27 |
According to
In Lake Baikal, the type locality of the endemic H. baikalensis is Chivyrkuyskiy Bay (
Previous researchers (
Moreover, the species H. baikalensis and H. oligactis are similar in the number and morphology of chromosomes, in the symmetrical structure of the karyotype, and in C-heterochromatin localization. They only differ in the length ratio of the 1st and 15th pairs of chromosomes (
In addition, molecular phylogenetic analyses did not reveal any differences between H. baikalensis and H. oligactis specimens. Genetic distances among all Baikal hydras (0.006) were less than the interspecific distances of other hydra (Table
Thus, the morphological characteristics, patterns of haplotype diversity, and the results of phylogenetic analyses lead us to consider H. baikalensis as a synonym of H. oligactis.
Phylum Cnidaria Verrill, 1865
Subphylum Medusozoa Peterson, 1979
Class Hydrozoa Owen, 1843
Subclass Hydroidolina Collins 2000
Order Anthoathecata Cornelius, 1992
Family Hydridae Dana, 1846
Hydra oligactis Pallas, 1766
Hydra fusca Linnaeus, 1767
Hydra roeselii Haacke, 1879
Hydra rhaetica Asper, 1879
Hydra rhistica Asper, 1880
? Hydra monoecia Downing, 1900
? Hydra pallida Beardsley, 1904
? Hydra corala Elrod & Ricker, 1902
? Hydra dioecia Downing, 1905
Pelmatohydra oligactis (Pallas, 1776)
Hydra baikalensis Swarczewsky, 1923
Diagnosis. The Baikal Hydra is large, typically with 5–7 long tentacles, and a more or less distinct peduncle. The cnidome includes four types of nematocysts: stenoteles, holotrichous isorhizas, atrichous isorhizas and desmonemes (Figs
A H. oligactis, living polyp from Lake Baikal. B–F morphological variability of holotrichous isorhizas B, F H. baikalensis; C, D, E H. oligactis (B Bolshie Koty C Posolskiy Sor D Chivyrkuiskiy Bay F Sobolev) E Photo adapted from
Distribution. Baikal region: Port Baikal, Ulanovo, Listvennichny Bay, Bolshie Koty, Varnachka, Sobolev Cape, Turali Cape, Elokhin Cape, Mukhor Bay, Posolsky Sor Dagarskaya Bay, littoral zone near Bolshoy Ushkaniy Island, small lakes along the Bolshie Koty River, and Lake Kuzmikhinskoye (Artificial reservoir near the Angara River). This species is also widespread and common on the entire European continent, including the British Isles and Iceland as well as Russia and North America (Hyman 1930; Holstein 1995;
We are grateful to Vadim V. Takhteev (Irkutsk State University) for assistance during the preparation of this study. Molecular genetic analyses carried out in this study were supported by governmentally funded project No. 0345–2019–0004 (AAAA-A16-116122110060-9); hydra sampling from type localities in Lake Baikal and morphological analyses were supported by RFBR project No. 19-05-00398-a.