Genetic diversity and phylogeny of limpets of the genus Nipponacmea (Patellogastropoda: Lottiidae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequences.

Species of the genus Nipponacmea inhabit only the Pacific coast of Asia, including the Russian Far East. Their external morphological characters are highly variable and often lead to misidentifications of species. So far, little research has been conducted using molecular markers. We used sequences from three mitochondrial genes (fragments of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI), 12S and 16S rDNA). For comparison, additional genetic and taxonomic data on other species belonging to this genus were derived from GenBank. The molecular phylogenetic trees suggest that the species N. fuscoviridis and N. nigrans are species complexes. N. fuscoviridis is divided into three subgroups with high support and relatively large distances between them (N. fuscoviridis A, B and C); N. nigrans fall into two subgroups and one of them (N. nigrans A) is more closely related to N. moskalevi than to the other subgroup of N. nigrans (B).