Southernmost records of Escarpia spicata and Lamellibrachia barhami (Annelida: Siboglinidae) confirmed with DNA obtained from dried tubes collected from undiscovered reducing environments in northern Chile.

Abstract

Deep-sea fishing bycatch enables collection of samples of rare species that are not easily accessible, for research purposes. However, these specimens are often degraded, losing diagnostic morphological characteristics. Several tubes of vestimentiferans, conspicuous annelids endemic to chemosynthetic environments, were obtained from a single batch of deep-sea fishing bycatch at depths of around 1,500 m off Huasco, northern Chile, as part of an ongoing study examining bycatch species. DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and an intron region within the hemoglobin subunit B2 (hbB2i) were successfully determined using vestimentiferans' dried-up tubes and their degraded inner tissue. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on DNA sequence identified the samples as Escarpia spicata Jones, 1985, and Lamellibrachia barhami Webb, 1969. These are the southernmost records, vastly extending the geographical ranges of both species from Santa Catalina Island, California to northern Chile for E. spicata (over 8,000 km), and from Vancouver Island Margin to northern Chile for L. barhami (over 10,000 km). We also determined a 16S rRNA sequence of symbiotic bacteria of L. barhami. The sequence of the bacteria is the same as that of E. laminata, Lamellibrachia sp. 1, and Lamellibrachia sp.2 known from the Gulf of Mexico. The present study provides sound evidence forthe presence of reducing environments along the continental margin of northern Chile.