Exploring Genetic Diversity in Gnaphosidae Spiders: First Application of iPBS Markers in Araneae

Order Araneae is one of the most common group of Arachnida (Phylum: Arthropoda) that exhibits great morphological diversity, numbering approximately 51 000 species. Gnaphosidae (Araneae) is a family with a cosmopolitan distribution and has one of the highest numbers of species with wide diversity among the Araneae families. DNA fingerprint analyzes are rarely used in genetic diversity studies in spiders, despite their high data content. In current study, the utility of Inter Primer Binding Site (iPBS) markers as a tool for distinguishing spider specimens at the species level was investigated. This study was carried out with 89 samples consisting of 10 genera and 28 species of Gnaphosidae, using three iPBS primers that amplified 226 bands and exhibited a 100% polymorphism pattern. The binary matrix resulting from scoring the banding patterns was used to define the primer parameters PIC (Polymorphic Information Content), D (Discrimination Power), R (Resolving Power), h (Nei’s Gene Diversity), and I (Shannon Information Index). The average PIC and D values for the three primers were 0.15 and 0.99, respectively. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) dendrograms were evaluated on 89 samples and clear delineation between species was observed. The intraspecific and interspecific distinction between samples acquired with iPBS primers was supported by Bayesian analysis. These results demonstrated that the iPBS marker system is a cost-effective, rapid, and powerful method to examine the genetic diversity of Gnaphosidae species and intraspecific variations. This study is the first attempt to investigate the applicability of the iPBS marker system for Order Araneae.