Phylogeographic Structure in Penguin Ticks across an Ocean Basin Indicates Allopatric Divergence and Rare Trans-Oceanic Dispersal.

ABSTRACT: The association of ticks (Acarina) and seabirds provides an intriguing system for assessing the influence of long-distance dispersal on the evolution of parasitic species. Recent research has focused on host-parasite evolutionary relationships and dispersal capacity of ticks parasitising flighted seabirds. Evolutionary research on the ticks of non-flighted seabirds is, in contrast, scarce. We conducted the first phylogeographic investigation of a hard tick species (Ixodes eudyptidis) that parasitises the Little Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor). Using one nuclear (28S) and two mitochondrial (COI and 16S) markers, we assessed genetic diversity among several populations in Australia and a single population on the South Island of New Zealand. Our results reveal two deeply divergent lineages, pos

SUBMITTER: Moon KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4471196 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature