DNA Barcoding of Antarctic Freshwater Copepod Boeckella poppei (Crustacea: Copepoda: Calanoida: Centropagidae) Inhabiting King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

Abstract

The Antarctic freshwater copepod, Boeckella poppei (Mrazek, 1901), has the widest range of distribution extending from southern South America to Antarctic continent, among all Boeckella species. Boeckella poppei is the only freshwater copepod known to be inhabiting the Antarctic continent. In present study, we analyzed the DNA barcodes of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of B. poppei from King George Island, Antarctica. The intraspecific genetic distances varied from 0% to 13% and interspecific genetic distances ranged from 11% to 14%. The overlap of DNA barcode gap suggests careful threshold-based delimitation of species boundaries.