Comparative phylogeography reveals consistently shallow genetic diversity in a mitochondrial marker in Antarctic bdelloid rotifers

Aim: The long history of isolation of the Antarctic continent, coupled with the harsh ecological conditions of freezing temperatures could affect the patterns of genetic diversity in the organisms living there. We aim (1) to test whether such pattern can be seen in a mitochondrial marker of bdelloid rotifers, a group of microscopic aquatic and limno-terrestrial animals, and (2) to speculate on the potential mechanisms driving the pattern.

Location: focus on Antarctica.

Taxon: Rotifera Bdelloidea.

Methods: We analysed different metrics of genetic diversity, also spatially explicit ones, including number of haplotypes, accumulation curves, genetic distances, time to the most recent common ancestor, number of independently evolving units from DNA taxonomy, strength of the correlation between geographic and genetic distances, population genetics neutrality and differentiation indices, potential historical processes, obtained from an extensive sample of cytochrome oxidase subunit I ...