RESEARCH ARTICLE Insights into the Evolutionary History of an Extinct South American Freshwater Snail Based on Historical DNA Roberto E. Vogler1,2☯*, Ariel A. Beltramino2,3☯, Ellen E. Strong4, Alejandra Rumi2, Juana G. Peso1 1 Instituto de BiologõÂa Subtropical, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, CONICET, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, 2 DivisioÂn ZoologõÂa Invertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CONICET, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 3 Departamento de BiologõÂa, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, QuõÂmicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, CONICET, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, 4 Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., United States of America These authors contributed equally to this work. a1111111111 ☯ *
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[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract Highly oxygenated freshwater habitats in the High Parana River (Argentina±Paraguay) were home to highly endemic snails of the genus Aylacostoma, which face extinction owing to the impoundment of the Yacyreta Reservoir in the 1990s. Two species, A. chloroticum OPEN ACCESS and A. brunneum, are currently included in an ongoing ex situ conservation programme, Citation: Vogler RE, Beltramino AA, Strong EE, whereas A. guaraniticum and A. stigmaticum are presumed extinct. Consequently, the valid- Rumi A, Peso JG (2016) Insights into the ity and affinities of the latter two have remained enigmatic. Here, we provide the first molecu- Evolutionary History of an Extinct South American Freshwater Snail Based on Historical DNA. PLoS lar data on the extinct A. stigmaticum by means of historical DNA analysis. We describe ONE 11(12): e0169191. doi:10.1371/journal. patterns of molecular evolution based on partial sequences of the mitochondrial 12S ribo- pone.0169191 somal RNA gene from the extinct species and from those being bred within the ex situ pro- Editor: Geerat J.