Mitochondrial DNA Variability and Wolbachia Infection in Two Sibling Woodlice Species

Several morphological races and subspecies have been described and later included within the terrestrial isopod species Porcellionides pruinosus. During our study of this species, we have worked on specimens from France, Greece, Tunisia and Reunion island. Laboratory crosses have revealed two separate groups of populations: French populations (four localities) in one group, and those from Tunisia, Reunion island and Greece in the other. French individuals were reproductively isolated from those of the other populations. We have undertaken a survey of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism in these seven populations. We observed two groups of mitotypes corresponding to the two groups of populations. Interfertility experiments between populations and the mitochondrial genetic distances between mitotypes both suggest the presence of two different species, one in France and one in Greece, Tunisia and Reunion island. The two species harbour, respectively, two different Wolbachia lines. Another feature of the molecular genetic analysis was the apparent mitochondrial monomorphism in the French populations and the low variability in the other three populations. The result can be related to the possibility of Wolbachia-induced genetic hitchhiking in these populations.