DNA-barcoding Norwegian Enchytraeidae (Annelida, Clitellata)
Did you know that there may be more than 150 species of microscopic, whitish relatives of earthworms in Norwegian soils, freshwaters and seashores? The group is called Enchytraeidae. Although many of them have scientific names and ca. 50 species are already known from Norway, we will need to use DNA to identify all of them.
Enchytraeids are segmented worms closely related to, but smaller than, earthworms. They are probably the most species-rich family of clitellates in Norway. In this project enchytraeids will be collected from about 300 localities all over Norway and Svalbard. They will be identified both by microscope examination and by DNA-barcoding. The latter is a method to distinguish species from each other on the basis of sequences of a standard gene fragment. With few exceptions, individuals of a particular species have such sequences that are much more similar to each other, than what they are to barcodes obtained from all other species. This facilitates species identification also of small parts of animals or very young individuals, which normally are difficult to recognize by visual observations only. Similar studies in Sweden have revealed an astonishing diversity of species, many of which are cryptic, i.e., they differ genetically but look alike. We may expect that most of these species also occur in Norway, plus those that are High Arctic ones. The aim of this study is to compile a national list of Norwegian Enchytraeidae, supplemented by a database of DNA barcodes of all these species.
Project manager: Christer Erséus
Project period: January 2013- December 2015
Cooperating institutions: University of Bergen