Journal Article

The Impact of Glacial Disturbance History Upon the Genetic Diversity of Unio crassus and Unio nanus in Europe and Implications for Conservation

Bayerl, Helmut, Kuehn, Ralph, Stoeckle, Bernhard C., Froufe, Elsa, Egg, Sarah, Geist, Juergen, Lopes‐Lima, Manuel

2025

Overview

ABSTRACT Historically, the thick‐shelled river mussel (Unio crassus agg. complex) was considered a single, widespread species across Europe. However, recent phylogenetic taxonomic revisions have delineated 12 species from this complex, including Unio crassus (s. str. Philipsson in Retzius, 1788) and Unio nanus (Lamarck, 1819 stat. rev.), which exhibit substantial range overlap and broad European distributions. Understanding their fine‐scale genetic diversity, population structure, and potential for recent or ancient hybridization is critical for effective conservation planning. This study investigated the genetic diversity and structure of U. crassus and U. nanus across Europe, examining the influence of glacial disturbance history and host‐fish associations. Using mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (microsatellite) markers on 60 populations, we revealed a discordance between mitochondrial and nuclear structuring, suggesting ancient introgression. Crucially, no evidence of recent hybridization was detected between U. crassus and U. nanus. We found significantly higher nuclear genetic diversity in U. crassus compared to U. nanus. Our findings indicate an older Black Sea–Caspian Sea divergence and ancient introgression between U. nanus and U. crassus, as well as distinct postglacial colonization routes: a Western route for U. nanus and an Eastern route for U. crassus, converging in a secondary contact zone. Our results highlight the strong influence of host‐fish associations and glacial history in shaping the genetic patterns of these mussels, underscoring the need to incorporate intraspecific genetic diversity into conservation strategies. As shell morphology proved unreliable for species identification, we recommend DNA barcoding for reliable species recognition and suggest further research into host‐fish preferences to improve conservation efforts. This paper presents novel findings on the genetic diversity of the recently described thick‐shelled river mussel complex, combining nuclear, mitochondrial, and morphometric markers in relation to European host‐fish colonization patterns. In particular, we identified currently unknown contact zones across their European distribution and found pronounced differences in the genetic diversity among the different species within the U. crassus complex.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Biodiversity / Conservation / Convergence / Discordance / Drainage / Endangered & extinct species / Fish / Fish conservation / Gene sequencing / Genetic diversity / Glacial periods / Hybridization / Interspecific hybridization / Mitochondrial DNA / Mollusks / Mussels / Phylogenetics / Phylogeography / Population / Population genetics / Population structure / Unio crassus / Wildlife conservation