Combining target DNA enrichment and morphology to understand the evolution of Dexiarchia (Nudibranchia, Heterobranchia, Gastropoda, Mollusca)
Final Report Abstract
While a resolved phylogeny of the Dexiarchia (Cladobranchia + Doridoxa) is still work in progress, our analyses of the Cladobranchia indicate maximal statistical support for all major splits and phylogenetic relationships at the family level. The placement of the genus Embletonia, however, proves challenging, even with large molecular data sets, various optimization strategies, and comprehensive morphological data. Moreover, extensive testing revealed that confounding signal present in the molecular data is sufficient to explain the inferred position. Our data matrices and the inferred trees serve as a solid foundation for our running analysis including the obtained target enrichment data, which enlarge our data set now to around 100 species from all dexiarchian superfamilies. The bioinformatic pipelines are now optimized. The extensive data on the morphological characters collected during this project will provide the information to interpret the trees that we will obtain soon and thus will further contribute in understanding the taxonomy and evolutionary history of Dexiarchia. The improved methodological pipelines and newly developed tools are publicly available and can be applied to any group of interest. They are therefore of general interest to other researchers working with similar data.
Publications
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2017. Agony of Choice - The Impact of Assembly Strategies on Phylogenetic Studies in Cladobranchia (Gastropoda, Mollusca). 110th annual meeting of the German Zoological Society, Bielefeld, September
Karmeinski, D.
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(2018). Comparative morphology and evolution of the cnidosac in Cladobranchia (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia). Front Zool 15, 43
Goodheart, J.A., Bleidißel, S., Schillo, D., Strong, E.E., Ayres, D.L., Preisfeld, A., Collins, A.G., Cummings, M.P., and Wägele, H.
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2019. Understanding Phylogenetic Relationships in Cladobranchia (Nudibranchia,Heterobranchia, Gastropoda) Using NGS Data. Presented at the World Congress of Malacology 2019, Pacific Grove, CA, August 16
Karmeinski, D.
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(2020). Phylogenomic analysis and morphological data suggest left-right swimming behavior evolved prior to the origin of the pelagic Phylliroidae (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia). Org Divers Evol 20, 657– 667
Goodheart, J.A., and Wägele, H.
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(2021). Statocyst content in Aeolidida (Nudibranchia) is an uninformative character for phylogenetic studies. Journal of Molluscan Studies 87, eyab009
Baumann, C., Laetz, E.M.J., and Wägele, H.
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(2021). Transcriptomics provides a robust framework for the relationships of the major clades of cladobranch sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia), but fails to resolve the position of the enigmatic genus Embletonia. BMC Ecology and Evolution 21, 226
Karmeinski, D., Meusemann, K., Goodheart, J.A., Schroedl, M., Martynov, A., Korshunova, T., Wägele, H., and Donath, A.
