Support for the monophyletic origin of Gnathifera from phylogenomics

• Published in: Molecular phylogenetics and evolution Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 1037 - 1041
• Main Authors: Witek, Alexander, Herlyn, Holger, Ebersberger, Ingo, Mark Welch, David B., Hankeln, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.12.2009
• Subjects: Animals; Bayes Theorem; Evolution, Molecular; Genomics; Gnathifera; Gnathostomulida; Likelihood Functions; Models, Genetic; Phylogeny; Ribosomal proteins; Ribosomal Proteins - genetics; Rotifera - classification; Rotifera - genetics; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis, Protein; Spiralia; Syndermata; Syndermata; Gnathifera; Phylogeny; Ribosomal proteins; Spiralia; Gnathostomulida
• ISSN: 1055-7903; 1095-9513
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2009.07.031

The monophyletic origin of Spiralia within the metazoan tree of life is supported by many large-scale phylogenomic data. While there is now substantial molecular evidence for Lophotrochozoa being a monophyletic taxon within Spiralia, the phylogenetic affiliations of many other spiralian phyla remain unclear. Here we focus on the question of a monophyletic taxon Gnathifera, which was originally characterized by jaw morphology as comprising the taxa Rotifera, Acanthocephala and Gnathostomulida. Based on a large-scale molecular sequence dataset of 11,146 amino acid residues, we reconstructed phylogenetic trees of spiralian phyla using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian approaches. We obtain the first phylogenomic evidence for the clade Gnathifera, linking Syndermata (Rotifera + Acanthocephala) with Gnathostomulida. Furthermore, our data support recent findings concerning the paraphyly of Eurotatoria.