Rev. biol. mar. oceanogr. 49(1): 147-155

Nota Científica

Diversidad de nematodos marinos de Chile continental y antártico: una evaluación morfológica y molecular

Natalia Valderrama-Aravena¹, Karla Pérez-Araneda¹, Jorge Avaria-Llautureo², Cristián E. Hernández², Matthew Lee³ y Antonio Brante¹

¹Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Alonso de Ribera 2850, Concepción, Chile

²Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva y Filoinformática, Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Alonso de Ribera 2850, Concepción, Chile

³Centro i-mar, Universidad de Los Lagos, Camino a Chinquihue km.6, Puerto Montt, Chile

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Free-living nematodes are an important component of the marine benthos. In Chile there have been few studies on this group, and the majority has focused on the morphological aspect only. In this study, ribosomal 18S RNA and mitochondrial COI genes were used as genetic markers to complement morphological analyses to study the continental and Antarctic Chilean marine nematofauna. Different protocols for fixing, extracting and amplifying DNA were also tested. Not all the possible combinations produced good results. In fact, only the 18S gene showed consistently results. Phylogenetic analyses showed some discordance between classical taxonomy (i.e., based on morphology) and molecular data. These results suggest that taxonomic classification using integrative approaches including morphological characteristics and molecular information is needed to study the diversity and evolution of this complex group.

Key words:  Meiofauna, COI, 18S, nematode