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Can Molecular Techniques Change Our Ideas About the Species Concept?

  • Conference paper
Molecular Ecology of Aquatic Microbes

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIG,volume 38))

Abstract

Molecular techniques can now be used to address many important questions concerning taxonomic affinity, genetic diversity, gene flow and dispersal. These data (protein or nucleic acid sequence information) can augment our understanding of a species in the marine environment. There is growing evidence that speciation and dispersal mechanisms in the marine environment are very different from terrestrial systems and occur at different rates. We have examined species/genetic diversity in three ecologically important members of the marine phytoplankton: the prymnesiophytes Phaeocystis and Emiliania huxleyi and the diatom Skeletonema costatum. All are high dispersal taxa. Differences among Phaeocystis species as measured by 18S rDNA sequence comparison indicate that extant Phaeocystis species probably arose from a cosmopolitan warm-water ancestor. Speciation events in this genus appear to have responded to major global cooling events. Two species complexes are apparent: one corresponds to taxa from polar regions and the other to taxa from temperate to tropical regions. Emiliania huxleyi, a much younger species, has dispersed across many océanographie barriers during much colder climatic conditions. Sequence data from coding and non-coding regions confirm that it is a single taxon, but RAPD techniques reveal extensive genetic diversity with both spatial and short-term temporal resolution. Sequence comparison of isolates of Skeletonema costatum, a cosmopolitan neritic form, reveals at least one cryptic species, which can also be differentiated by certain morphological features, and a cluster of isolates that may be sibling species. It may be that in many planktonic forms molecular speciation has proceeded, whereas morphological divergence has not. The abundance of sibling species in the marine environment is only now being revealed (Knowlton 1993). The fitness of form resulting in similar if not identical morphotypes has analogies at all taxonomic levels in the sea (Knowlton 1993, Sournia 1988).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Am Handelshafen, 12, D-27515, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Linda K. Medlin & Martin Lange

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK

    Gary L. A. Barker & Paul K. Hayes

Authors
  1. Linda K. Medlin
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  2. Martin Lange
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  3. Gary L. A. Barker
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  4. Paul K. Hayes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Natural Environment Research Council, Prospect Place, The Hoe, PL1 3DH, Plymouth, UK

    Ian Joint

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Medlin, L.K., Lange, M., Barker, G.L.A., Hayes, P.K. (1995). Can Molecular Techniques Change Our Ideas About the Species Concept?. In: Joint, I. (eds) Molecular Ecology of Aquatic Microbes. NATO ASI Series, vol 38. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79923-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79923-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-79925-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79923-5

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