Hostname: page-component-65b85459fc-jtdgp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-15T13:19:59.865Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genetic characterization of the invasive serpulid Ficopomatus cf. uschakovi (Pillai, 1960) in a highly urbanized estuary in Texas, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2025

Vanessa Fernández-Rodríguez Open the ORCID record for Vanessa Fernández-Rodríguez [Opens in a new window] ,
Elena Kupriyanova  and
Anja Schulze Open the ORCID record for Anja Schulze [Opens in a new window]
Vanessa Fernández-Rodríguez*
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA
Elena Kupriyanova
Affiliation:
Marine Invertebrates, Australian Museum Research Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Anja Schulze
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA
*
Corresponding author: Vanessa Fernández-Rodríguez; Email: vanessa.fernandezr@tamu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ficopomatus uschakovi has been reported in Galveston Bay (GB), Texas, USA, in taxonomic lists and studies of biofouling communities since 2017; however, after 2 years (from 2022 to 2024) of no observations of this species in the system, we report the first seasonal outbreak after the landfall of Hurricane Beryl in the summer of 2024, followed by 2 weeks of heavy rain, decreasing the salinity at the collection site. In this study, we provide the first genetic characterization of the specimens of F. cf. uschakovi from GB using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase b DNA sequence data. Results demonstrated that specimens of F. cf. uschakovi in GB belong to the same genetic species as reported on both of coasts of Mexico, the Gulf coast of Florida, and Thailand. The presence of shared haplotypes suggests possible initial introduction from Asia and subsequent expansion of F. cf. uschakovi populations. The comparison of the morphological characters with reports from nearby localities showed a variation in the number of rows and spines on the operculum and in the tube colouration. This study highlights the importance of morphological and genetic analysis for reliable identification of invasive species, the need for wide geographical sampling, as well as examinations of the ecological drivers of F. cf. uschakovi outbreaks.

Keywords

biofoulingcytochrome bGalveston Bayinvasionsecosystem engineerestuary

Information

Type
Marine Record
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 105 , 2025 , e60
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Altschul, SF, Gish, W, Miller, W, Myers, EW and Lipman, DJ (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. Journal of Molecular Biology 215(3), 403–410. doi:10.1016/S0022-2836(05)80360-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Álvarez-Aguilar, A, Van Rensburg, H and Simon, CA (2022) Impacts of alien polychaete species in marine ecosystems: A systematic review. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 102(1–2), 3–26. doi:10.1017/S0025315422000315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arteaga-Flórez, C, Fernández-Rodríguez, V and Londoño-Mesa, MH (2014) First record of the polychaete Ficopomatus uschakovi (Pillai, 1960) (Annelida, Serpulidae) in the Colombian Caribbean, South America. ZooKeys 371, 1–11. doi:10.3897/zookeys.371.5588CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bastida-Zavala, JR, McCann, L, Keppel, E, and Ruiz, GM (2017) The fouling serpulids (Polychaeta: Serpulidae) from United States coastal waters: An overview. European Journal of Taxonomy 344, 1–76. doi: 10.5852/ejt.2017.344Google Scholar
BastidaZavala, R, and García-Madrigal, S (2012) First record in the Tropical Eastern Pacific of the exotic species Ficopomatus uschakovi (Polychaeta, Serpulidae). ZooKeys 238, 45–55. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.238.3970CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boore, JL and Brown, WM (2000) Mitochondrial genomes of Galathealinum, Helobdella, and Platynereis: Sequence and gene arrangement comparisons indicate that Pogonophora is not a Phylum and Annelida and Arthropoda are not sister taxa. Molecular Biology and Evolution 17(1), 87–106. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026241CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briski, E, Ghabooli, S, Bailey, SA and MacIsaac, HJ (2012) Invasion risk posed by macroinvertebrates transported in ships’ ballast tanks. Biological Invasions 14, 1843–1850. doi: 10.1007/s10530-012-0194-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capa, M, Kupriyanova, E, Nogueira, JMM, Bick, A and Tovar-Hernández, MA (2021) Fanworms: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Diversity 13(3), 130. doi: 10.3390/d13030130CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Assis, J and Christoffersen, M (2008) First record of Ficopomatus uschakovi (Pillai, 1960) Serpulidae (Polychaeta: Annelida) for the Western Atlantic. Revista Nordestina de Biologia 19, 51–58.Google Scholar
Dittmann, S, Rolston, A, Benger, SN and Kupriyanova, EK (2009) Habitat requirements, distribution and colonization of the tubeworm Ficopomatus enigmaticus in the lower lakes and Coorong. Final report for the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board. Available at: https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:89582359 (accessed 10 January 2025).Google Scholar
Dorado, S, Booe, T, Steichen, J, McInnes, AS, Windham, R, Shepard, A, Lucchese, AEB, Preischel, H, Pinckney, JL, Davis, SE, Roelke, DL and Quigg, A (2015) Towards an understanding of the interactions between freshwater inflows and phytoplankton communities in a subtropical estuary in the Gulf of Mexico. PLOS ONE 10(7), e0130931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130931CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Rodríguez, V, Jurgens, L and Schulze, A (2023) Is Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Annelida: Serpulidae) becoming a nuisance in Galveston Bay, Texas?. Diversity 15(7). doi: 10.3390/d15070852CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, JBJ, Hoy, MS and Rodriguez, RJ (2009) Molecular detection of native and invasive marine invertebrate larvae present in ballast and open water environmental samples collected in Puget Sound. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 369(2), 93–99. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2008.10.030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulme, PE (2021) Unwelcome exchange: International trade as a direct and indirect driver of biological invasions worldwide. One Earth 4(5), 666–679. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurgens, LJ, Ciesielski, M, Agrawal, A and Hubbard, E (2022) Low salinity weakens predator effects on community assembly in a sub-tropical Estuary. Estuaries and Coasts 45(7), 2070–2081. doi: 10.1007/s12237-022-01084-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupriyanova, EK, Nishi, E, ten Hove, HA and Rzhavsky, AV (2001) Life-history patterns in serpulimorph polychaetes: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review 39, 1–101. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258022286Google Scholar
Kupriyanova, EK, Rzhavsky, AV, and ten Hove, HA (2019) 7.4.7 Serpulidae Rafinesque, 1815. In Purschke, G, Westheide, W and Böggemann, M. (eds), Band 2: Pleistoannelida, Sedentaria II. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 213–275. doi: 10.1515/9783110291681-006Google Scholar
Kupriyanova, EK, Tovar-Hernández, MA, Mejía-González, G, Jayachandran, PR, Brandão, IC and de León-gonzález, JA (2024) Confirming the invasion by tubeworm Ficopomatus cf. uschakovi (Pillai, 1960) (Annelida, Serpulidae) in Mexico. BioInvasions Records 13(4), 979–991. doi:10.3391/bir.2024.13.4.11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liñero-Arana, I and Díaz-Díaz, O (2012) Presencia del poliqueto exótico Ficopomatus uschakovi (Polychaeta: Serpulidae) en Venezuela: Descripción y comentarios sobre distribución. Interciencia 7(3), 234–237.Google Scholar
Lins, DM and Rocha, RM (2023) Marine aquaculture as a source of propagules of invasive fouling species. PeerJournal 11, e15456. doi:10.7717/peerj.15456Google ScholarPubMed
Minh, BQ, Schmidt, HA, Chernomor, O, Schrempf, D, Woodhams, MD, von Haeseler, A and Lanfear, R (2020) IQ-TREE 2: New models and efficient methods for phylogenetic inference in the genomic era. Molecular Biology and Evolution 37(5), 1530–1534. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa015CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montefalcone, M, Oprandi, A, Azzola, A, Morri, C, and Bianchi, CN (2022) Serpulid reefs and their role in aquatic ecosystems: A global review. Advances in Marine Biology 92, 1–54. doi: 10.1016/bs.amb.2022.06.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2024) Hurricane Beryl (AL022024). Final Report. Available at: https://www.weather.gov/lch/2024Beryl (accessed 10 January 2025).Google Scholar
Pillai, TG (1960) Some marine and brackish-water serpulid Polychaeta from Ceylon, including new genera and species. Ceylon Journal of Science 3(1), 1–40.Google Scholar
Ruiz, GM, Fofonoff, PW, Carlton, JT, Wonham, MJ and Hines, AH (2000) Invasion of coastal marine communities in North America: Apparent patterns, processes, and biases. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31(1), 481–531. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.481CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwindt, E, Bortolus, A and Iribarne, OO (2001) Invasion of a reef-builder polychaete: Direct and indirect impacts on the native benthic community structure. Biological Invasions 3(2), 137–149. doi: 10.1023/A:1014571916818CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spalding, MD, Fox, HE, Allen, GR, Davidson, N, Ferdaña, ZA, Finlayson, M, Halpern, BS, Jorge, MA, Lombana, A, Lourie, SA, Martin, KD, McManus, E, Molnar, J, Recchia, CA and Robertson, J (2007) Marine ecoregions of the world: A bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas. BioScience 57(7), 573–583. doi: 10.1641/B570707CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Styan, C, McCluskey, C, Sun, Y and Kupriyanova, E (2017) Cryptic sympatric species across the Australian range of the global estuarine invader Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel, 1923) (Serpulidae, Annelida). Aquatic Invasions 12(1), 53–65. doi: 10.3391/ai.2017.12.1.06CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ten Hove, H and Weerdenburg, JCA (1978) A Generic Revision Of The Brackish-Water Serpulid Ficopomatus Southern 1921 (Polychaeta: Serpulinae), Including Mercierella Fauvel 1923, Sphaeropomatus Treadwell 1934, Mercierellopsis Rioja 1945 And Neopomatus Pillai 1960. The Biological Bulletin 154(1), 96–120. doi: 10.2307/1540777CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (1993) Overview of Galveston Bay in Galveston Bay National Estuary Program Framework for Action: Galveston Bay Management evaluation. Available at: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/comm_exec/pubs/gbnep/gbnep-27/. (accessed 20 December 2024).Google Scholar
Tovar-Hernández, MA, de León-gonzález, JA and Kupriyanova, E (2022) New records of invasive tubeworms ( Ficopomatus, Serpulidae) in Mexico. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 102(8), 553–564. doi: 10.1017/S0025315422000790CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trifinopoulos, J, Nguyen, L-T, von Haeseler, A and Minh, BQ (2016) W-IQ-TREE: A fast online phylogenetic tool for maximum likelihood analysis. Nucleic Acids Research 44(W1), 232–235. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkw256CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed