Corbicula fluminea populations from Northern Italy: mtDNA COI gene study.

The Asian clam Corbicula fluminea is non-indigenous species (NIS) that successfully expanded from its native range to non-native worldwide freshwater ecosystems, causing negative ecologic and economic impacts in the invaded regions. Records indicate that in Northern Italy, C. fluminea was first detected in Po River in 1998, subsequently in Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore in 2002 and 2010, respectively. Even though the establishment of these C. fluminea populations from Northern Italy (Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda) has been previously reported, its genetic variability has not been assessed thus far. In this scope, the main objective of this study was to evaluate these C. fluminea populations employing mtDNA COI gene analyses and to compare the obtained results with other available worldwide data of Corbicula species from the native and invaded range through population genetics and phylogeographical inference methodologies. This study demonstrates the prevalence mtDNA COI haplotype which is similar to the C. fluminea haplotype I from France, C. sp. Haplotype (form A) from North American, C. sp. (form R) from Netherlands, C. fluminea from Portugal and the FW5 Asian haplotype. These preliminary genetic characterization findings may provide insightful information regarding the invasive behaviour of these Corbicula fluminea populations from Northern Italy.