The Chilean mussel''Mytilus chilensis'' (Hupé, 1854)
Sealifebase.org or Chilean blue mussel is a species of

blue mussel The blue mussel (''Mytilus edulis''), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the mussels. Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensive aquaculture. A species with a l ...

native to the coasts of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

from BioBio region (37 ºS) to Cape Horn (55 ºS). Today genomic evidence confirmed that the native Chilean blue mussel is genetically distinct from the Northem Hemisfere ''M. edulis'', ''M. galloprovincialis'' and ''M. trossulus'' and also genetically different from ''Mytilus platensis", the another species of smooth shelled mussel from Southamerica.

Right and left valve of the same specimen: File:Mytilus chilensis 01.jpg, Right valve File:Mytilus chilensis 02.jpg, Left valve

Aquaculture

''M. chilensis'' is under intensive aquaculture in Chile. From 2004 to 2008 the annual commercial harvest increased from 80,000 to 200,000 tonnes.Ríos, J. L. (2010
Mussels - May 2010, Chile
Globefish.org. Following a decrease in 2009, the production was back at high level in 2010.
Globefish.org Over 45,000 tonnes of mussels were exported from Chile in 2008, 93% of them frozen. Some 74% of exports are to the EU, primarily Spain and France, and 15% to the United States.

Systematics

Alcide d’Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropol ...

first described the species ''Mytilus platensis'' d'Orbigny, 1842,. Species that was for many year erroneously confused with ''Mytilus chilensis'' described by Hipolito Hupé in 1854. Nowadays most biodiversity data bases, such as the World Register of Marine Species ''Mytilus chilensis'' Hupé, 1854
www.marinespecies.org or the Integrated Taxonomic Information System ''Mytilus chilensis'' Hupé, 1854
www.itis.gov recognise ''Mytilus chilensis'' as a valid taxon in the Mytilus genus and different from ''Mytilus platensis''. ''Mytilus chilensis'' is part of the worldwide ''Mytilus edulis'' complex of mussels, or blue mussels. Modern genetic studies based on

single-nucleotide polymorphism In genetics, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP ; plural SNPs ) is a germline substitution of a single nucleotide at a specific position in the genome. Although certain definitions require the substitution to be present in a sufficiently lar ...

(SNP) have demonstrated that the Chilean mussel is genetically different of both the Mediterranean mussel (''Mytilus galloprovincialis'') and the North Atlantic ''

Mytilus edulis The blue mussel (''Mytilus edulis''), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the mussels. Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensive aquaculture. A species with a l ...

''. Evidence collected until 2021 recognized several blue mussel species in South America, including native ''M. platensis'', introduced ''M. galloprovincialis'' from the Mediterranean, and possibly-introduced ''M. planulatus''.
/ref> Using nuclear DNA markers, Borsa et al. (2012) confirmed earlier results from allozymes
/ref> that most populations in the south of the South American continent indeed represent a native Southern Hemisphere lineage of the blue mussel, for which they suggested to use the subspecies name ''Mytilus edulis platensis''
/ref> (now ''M. platensis''). The same authors questioned the earlier identifications of the Montevideo mussel in Southern Chile as "''M. galloprovincialis''" because the genetic markers then used could not help distinguishing ''M. galloprovincialis'' from any of the two native blue mussel species from the Southern Hemisphere, now referred to as ''M. planulatus'' and ''M. platensis''. Moreover, ''M. platensis'' populations in southern Chile show slight introgression from ''M. planulatus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q384733 Mytilus (bivalve) Molluscs of South America Molluscs of Chile Fauna of the Falkland Islands Bivalves described in 1842

Aquaculture

Systematics

See also

References