RESEARCH ARTICLE Long-Distance Travellers: Phylogeography of a Generalist Parasite, Pholeter gastrophilus, from Cetaceans Natalia Fraija-FernaÂndez1☯*, Mercedes FernaÂndez1☯, Kristina Lehnert2, Juan Antonio Raga1, Ursula Siebert2, Francisco Javier Aznar1☯ 1 Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, Science Park, University of Valencia, Paterna, Valencia, Spain, 2 Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Werftstrasse, BuÈsum, Germany a1111111111 a1111111111 ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract We studied the phylogeography and historical demography of the most generalist digenean from cetaceans, Pholeter gastrophilus, exploring the effects of isolation by distance, ecologi- OPEN ACCESS cal barriers and hosts' dispersal ability on the population structure of this parasite. The ITS2 Citation: Fraija-FernaÂndez N, FernaÂndez M, Lehnert K, Raga JA, Siebert U, Aznar FJ (2017) Long- rDNA, and the mitochondrial COI and ND1 from 68 individual parasites were analysed. Distance Travellers: Phylogeography of a Generalist Worms were collected from seven oceanic and coastal cetacean species from the south Parasite, Pholeter gastrophilus, from Cetaceans. western Atlantic (SWA), central eastern Atlantic, north eastern Atlantic (NEA), and Mediter- PLoS ONE 12(1): e0170184. doi:10.1371/journal. ranean Sea. Pholeter gastrophilus was considered a single lineage because reciprocal pone.0170184 monophyly