First record of Aequorea macrodactyla (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Israeli coast of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, an alien species indicating invasive pathways

By

Mizrahi, Gur
Shemesh, Eli
Ofwegen, L. P. van (Leendert P.), 1953-
Tchernov, Dan

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

26

Pages

55-70

Subjects

Aequorea macrodactyla , anthropogenic changes , gelatinous fauna , Hydromedusa , Lessepsian migration , migration of jellyfish , phylogenetic markers

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.26.8278

 

Abstract

The species of Aequorea attract much scientific interest as they contain the unique Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). In this work we describe for the first time the discovery of a hydrozoan jellyfish belonging to the genus Aequorea from the Israeli eastern Mediterranean that contains and exhibits fluorescent protein. Finding Aequorea macrodactyla (Brandt, 1835) in the eastern Mediterranean indicates that changes are occurring in the gelatinous fauna of this area. This hydromedusa is known in the seas adjoining the Mediterranean though most of its records are more than four decades old. We examined and identified the newly discovered Israeli Aequorea species by combining two phylogenetic systems, traditional morphological phylogeny and molecular phylogenetics. The molecular identification determined that the species is A. macrodactyla but with minor genetic differences in the mtDNA 16S gene marker. A 1% difference between the Israeli and the Japanese A. macrodactyla was demonstrated, which suggests that the genetic difference between the Israeli and the Japanese population is small but existent. Invasive pathways for this jellyfish were examined by phylogenetic and taxonomic relationships with similar Cnidaria. The results indicate introduction from the Indo-Pacific as invasive pathway, probably by human transportation, and the discovery of A. macrodactyla in the eastern Mediterranean Sea could be interpreted as part of the changes in marine biota as a result of cumulative effects of anthropogenic and global changes that affect the eastern Mediterranean basin.