Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary biology of Rotifera
Final Report Abstract
The goal of the DFG project was to determine the phylogenetic relationships of Rotifera, a small clade of zooplankton with about 2014 described species (unless stated otherwise, all species numbers were obtained from www.catalogueoflife.org), on the basis of four genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, histone H3, and MT-CO1), thereby expanding on a dataset that had previously been used to provide an overview of the relationships within the group. As stated within the initial application, Rotifera traditionally comprises three major clades– Bdelloidea (ca. 388 species), Monogononta (ca. 1623 species), and Seisonidea (three species)–of uncertain relationship to one another. Recently, evidence has been mounting that the traditional rotifer sister group, Acanthocephala (ca. 1330 species), also nests within Rotifera based on analyses of diverse sequence or transcriptome data or of mitochrondrial gene order, rendering the latter paraphyletic. However, the exact relationships among these four major taxa of Syndermata are probably still best viewed as being unresolved and Acanthocephala often continues to be treated separately because the endoparasitic lifestyle of its species and associated morphological adaptations differ drastically from those of most rotifers, which, with the exception of Seisonidea, tend to be free-living. (For clarity, I will refer to the Rotifera as traditionally recognized as Rotifera and any clade that they build with Acanthocephala as Syndermata.) Relationships within each of the two major rotifer clades are also poorly resolved. Through the taxonomic expertise of the co-PI, Dr. Wilko Ahlrichs, we sought to greatly increase the number of rotifer species for which basic molecular data were available and so produce the most comprehensive molecular estimate of their phylogenetic relationships to date.
Publications
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2014. 107th annual meeting of the Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft. Göttingen, September 11–14, 2014. “An 18S rDNA variability map for rotifers”
Hawkins, J., and O.R.P. Bininda-Emonds
