1
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Fournier GP. Stem Life: A Framework for Understanding the Prebiotic-Biotic Transition. J Mol Evol 2024:10.1007/s00239-024-10201-z. [PMID: 39244680 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-024-10201-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 08/27/2024] [Indexed: 09/10/2024]
Abstract
Abiogenesis is frequently envisioned as a linear, ladder-like progression of increasingly complex chemical systems, eventually leading to the ancestors of extant cellular life. This "pre-cladistics" view is in stark contrast to the well-accepted principles of organismal evolutionary biology, as informed by paleontology and phylogenetics. Applying this perspective to origins, I explore the paradigm of "Stem Life," which embeds abiogenesis within a broader continuity of diversification and extinction of both hereditary lineages and chemical systems. In this new paradigm, extant life's ancestral lineage emerged alongside and was dependent upon many other complex prebiotic chemical systems, as part of a diverse and fecund prebiosphere. Drawing from several natural history analogies, I show how this shift in perspective enriches our understanding of Origins and directly informs debates on defining Life, the emergence of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), and the implications of prebiotic chemical experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory P Fournier
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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2
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Budd GE, Mann RP. Two Notorious Nodes: A Critical Examination of Relaxed Molecular Clock Age Estimates of the Bilaterian Animals and Placental Mammals. Syst Biol 2024; 73:223-234. [PMID: 37695319 PMCID: PMC11129587 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syad057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Revised: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The popularity of relaxed clock Bayesian inference of clade origin timings has generated several recent publications with focal results considerably older than the fossils of the clades in question. Here, we critically examine two such clades: the animals (with a focus on the bilaterians) and the mammals (with a focus on the placentals). Each example displays a set of characteristic pathologies which, although much commented on, are rarely corrected for. We conclude that in neither case does the molecular clock analysis provide any evidence for an origin of the clade deeper than what is suggested by the fossil record. In addition, both these clades have other features (including, in the case of the placental mammals, proximity to a large mass extinction) that allow us to generate precise expectations of the timings of their origins. Thus, in these instances, the fossil record can provide a powerful test of molecular clock methodology, and why it goes astray, and we have every reason to think these problems are general. [Cambrian explosion; mammalian evolution; molecular clocks.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham E Budd
- Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology Programme, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16 SE 75236, Sweden
| | - Richard P Mann
- Department of Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
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3
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Kozma MT, Pérez-Moreno JL, Gandhi NS, Hernandez Jeppesen L, Durica DS, Ventura T, Mykles DL. In silico analysis of crustacean hyperglycemic hormone family G protein-coupled receptor candidates. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2024; 14:1322800. [PMID: 38298185 PMCID: PMC10828670 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1322800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Ecdysteroid molting hormone synthesis is directed by a pair of molting glands or Y-organs (YOs), and this synthesis is inhibited by molt-inhibiting hormone (MIH). MIH is a member of the crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH) neuropeptide superfamily, which includes CHH and insect ion transport peptide (ITP). It is hypothesized that the MIH receptor is a Class A (Rhodopsin-like) G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). The YO of the blackback land crab, Gecarcinus lateralis, expresses 49 Class A GPCRs, three of which (Gl-CHHR-A9, -A10, and -A12) were provisionally assigned as CHH-like receptors. CrusTome, a transcriptome database assembled from 189 crustaceans and 12 ecdysozoan outgroups, was used to deorphanize candidate MIH/CHH GPCRs, relying on sequence homology to three functionally characterized ITP receptors (BNGR-A2, BNGR-A24, and BNGR-A34) in the silk moth, Bombyx mori. Phylogenetic analysis and multiple sequence alignments across major taxonomic groups revealed extensive expansion and diversification of crustacean A2, A24, and A34 receptors, designated CHH Family Receptor Candidates (CFRCs). The A2 clade was divided into three subclades; A24 clade was divided into five subclades; and A34 was divided into six subclades. The subclades were distinguished by conserved motifs in extracellular loop (ECL) 2 and ECL3 in the ligand-binding region. Eleven of the 14 subclades occurred in decapod crustaceans. In G. lateralis, seven CFRC sequences, designated Gl-CFRC-A2α1, -A24α, -A24β1, -A24β2, -A34α2, -A34β1, and -A34β2, were identified; the three A34 sequences corresponded to Gl-GPCR-A12, -A9, and A10, respectively. ECL2 in all the CFRC sequences had a two-stranded β-sheet structure similar to human Class A GPCRs, whereas the ECL2 of decapod CFRC-A34β1/β2 had an additional two-stranded β-sheet. We hypothesize that this second β-sheet on ECL2 plays a role in MIH/CHH binding and activation, which will be investigated further with functional assays.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihika T. Kozma
- Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
| | | | - Neha S. Gandhi
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
- School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | | | - David S. Durica
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States
| | - Tomer Ventura
- Centre for BioInnovation and School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia
| | - Donald L. Mykles
- Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
- Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute, University of California-Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, Bodega Bay, CA, United States
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4
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Asar Y, Sauquet H, Ho SYW. Evaluating the Accuracy of Methods for Detecting Correlated Rates of Molecular and Morphological Evolution. Syst Biol 2023; 72:1337-1356. [PMID: 37695237 PMCID: PMC10924723 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syad055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Determining the link between genomic and phenotypic change is a fundamental goal in evolutionary biology. Insights into this link can be gained by using a phylogenetic approach to test for correlations between rates of molecular and morphological evolution. However, there has been persistent uncertainty about the relationship between these rates, partly because conflicting results have been obtained using various methods that have not been examined in detail. We carried out a simulation study to evaluate the performance of 5 statistical methods for detecting correlated rates of evolution. Our simulations explored the evolution of molecular sequences and morphological characters under a range of conditions. Of the methods tested, Bayesian relaxed-clock estimation of branch rates was able to detect correlated rates of evolution correctly in the largest number of cases. This was followed by correlations of root-to-tip distances, Bayesian model selection, independent sister-pairs contrasts, and likelihood-based model selection. As expected, the power to detect correlated rates increased with the amount of data, both in terms of tree size and number of morphological characters. Likewise, greater among-lineage rate variation in the data led to improved performance of all 5 methods, particularly for Bayesian relaxed-clock analysis when the rate model was mismatched. We then applied these methods to a data set from flowering plants and did not find evidence of a correlation in evolutionary rates between genomic data and morphological characters. The results of our study have practical implications for phylogenetic analyses of combined molecular and morphological data sets, and highlight the conditions under which the links between genomic and phenotypic rates of evolution can be evaluated quantitatively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yasmin Asar
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Hervé Sauquet
- National Herbarium of New South Wales (NSW), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
- Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Simon Y W Ho
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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5
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Bernot JP, Owen CL, Wolfe JM, Meland K, Olesen J, Crandall KA. Major Revisions in Pancrustacean Phylogeny and Evidence of Sensitivity to Taxon Sampling. Mol Biol Evol 2023; 40:msad175. [PMID: 37552897 PMCID: PMC10414812 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msad175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2022] [Revised: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The clade Pancrustacea, comprising crustaceans and hexapods, is the most diverse group of animals on earth, containing over 80% of animal species and half of animal biomass. It has been the subject of several recent phylogenomic analyses, yet relationships within Pancrustacea show a notable lack of stability. Here, the phylogeny is estimated with expanded taxon sampling, particularly of malacostracans. We show small changes in taxon sampling have large impacts on phylogenetic estimation. By analyzing identical orthologs between two slightly different taxon sets, we show that the differences in the resulting topologies are due primarily to the effects of taxon sampling on the phylogenetic reconstruction method. We compare trees resulting from our phylogenomic analyses with those from the literature to explore the large tree space of pancrustacean phylogenetic hypotheses and find that statistical topology tests reject the previously published trees in favor of the maximum likelihood trees produced here. Our results reject several clades including Caridoida, Eucarida, Multicrustacea, Vericrustacea, and Syncarida. Notably, we find Copepoda nested within Allotriocarida with high support and recover a novel relationship between decapods, euphausiids, and syncarids that we refer to as the Syneucarida. With denser taxon sampling, we find Stomatopoda sister to this latter clade, which we collectively name Stomatocarida, dividing Malacostraca into three clades: Leptostraca, Peracarida, and Stomatocarida. A new Bayesian divergence time estimation is conducted using 13 vetted fossils. We review our results in the context of other pancrustacean phylogenetic hypotheses and highlight 15 key taxa to sample in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- James P Bernot
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Christopher L Owen
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA-ARS, ℅ National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Joanna M Wolfe
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Kenneth Meland
- Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Jørgen Olesen
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Keith A Crandall
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
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6
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Herting J, Schönenberger J, Sauquet H. Profile of a flower: How rates of morphological evolution drive floral diversification in Ericales and angiosperms. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2023; 110:e16213. [PMID: 37459475 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Recent studies of floral disparity in the asterid order Ericales have shown that flowers vary strongly among families and that disparity is unequally distributed between the three flower modules (perianth, androecium, gynoecium). However, it remains unknown whether these patterns are driven by heterogeneous rates of morphological evolution or other factors. METHODS Here, we compiled a data set of 33 floral characters scored for 414 species of Ericales sampled from 346 genera and all 22 families. We conducted ancestral state reconstructions using an equal-rates Markov model for each character. We estimated rates of morphological evolution for Ericales and for a separate angiosperm-wide data set of 19 characters and 792 species, creating "rate profiles" for Ericales, angiosperms, and major angiosperm subclades. We compared morphological rates among flower modules within each data set separately and between data sets, and we compared rates among angiosperm subclades using the angiosperm data set. RESULTS The androecium exhibits the highest evolutionary rates across most characters, whereas most perianth and gynoecium characters evolve more slowly in both Ericales and angiosperms. Both high and low rates of morphological evolution can result in high floral disparity in Ericales. Analyses of an angiosperm-wide floral data set reveal that this pattern appears to be conserved across most major angiosperm clades. CONCLUSIONS Elevated rates of morphological evolution in the androecium of Ericales may explain the higher disparity reported for this floral module. Comparing rates of morphological evolution through rate profiles proves to be a powerful tool in understanding floral evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Herting
- National Herbarium of New South Wales, Botanic Gardens Sydney, Locked Bag 6002, Mount Annan, NSW 2567, Australia
| | - Jürg Schönenberger
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, Vienna, A-1030, Austria
| | - Hervé Sauquet
- National Herbarium of New South Wales, Botanic Gardens Sydney, Locked Bag 6002, Mount Annan, NSW 2567, Australia
- Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
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7
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Rauniyar K, Bokharaie H, Jeltsch M. Expansion and collapse of VEGF diversity in major clades of the animal kingdom. Angiogenesis 2023; 26:437-461. [PMID: 37017884 PMCID: PMC10328876 DOI: 10.1007/s10456-023-09874-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 03/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023]
Abstract
Together with the platelet-derived growth factors (PDGFs), the vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) form the PDGF/VEGF subgroup among cystine knot growth factors. The evolutionary relationships within this subgroup have not been examined thoroughly to date. Here, we comprehensively analyze the PDGF/VEGF growth factors throughout all animal phyla and propose a phylogenetic tree. Vertebrate whole-genome duplications play a role in expanding PDGF/VEGF diversity, but several limited duplications are necessary to account for the temporal pattern of emergence. The phylogenetically oldest PDGF/VEGF-like growth factor likely featured a C-terminus with a BR3P signature, a hallmark of the modern-day lymphangiogenic growth factors VEGF-C and VEGF-D. Some younger VEGF genes, such as VEGFB and PGF, appeared completely absent in important vertebrate clades such as birds and amphibia, respectively. In contrast, individual PDGF/VEGF gene duplications frequently occurred in fish on top of the known fish-specific whole-genome duplications. The lack of precise counterparts for human genes poses limitations but also offers opportunities for research using organisms that diverge considerably from humans. Sources for the graphical abstract: 326 MYA and older [1]; 72-240 MYA [2]; 235-65 MYA [3].
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Affiliation(s)
- Khushbu Rauniyar
- Drug Research Program, Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Biocenter 2, (Viikinkaari 5E), P.O. Box. 56, 00790, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Honey Bokharaie
- Drug Research Program, Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Biocenter 2, (Viikinkaari 5E), P.O. Box. 56, 00790, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Michael Jeltsch
- Drug Research Program, Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Biocenter 2, (Viikinkaari 5E), P.O. Box. 56, 00790, Helsinki, Finland.
- Individualized Drug Therapy Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
- Wihuri Research Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
- Helsinki One Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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8
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Hauser F, Pallesen M, Lehnhoff J, Li S, Lind A, Grimmelikhuijzen CJP. A corazonin G protein-coupled receptor gene in the tick Ixodes scapularis yields two splice variants, each coding for a specific corazonin receptor. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2023; 666:162-169. [PMID: 37196606 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2023.04.087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
We have identified a corazonin G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) gene in the tick Ixodes scapularis, which likely plays a central role in the physiology and behavior of this ectoparasite. This receptor gene is unusually large (1.133 Mb) and yields two corazonin (CRZ) receptor splice variants, where nearly half of the coding regions are exchanged: CRZ-Ra (containing exon 2, exon 3, and exon 4 of the gene) and CRZ-Rb (containing exon 1, exon 3, and exon 4 of the gene). CRZ-Ra codes for a GPCR with a canonical DRF sequence at the border of the third transmembrane helix and the second intracellular loop. The positively-charged R residue from the DRF sequence is important for coupling of G proteins after activation of a GPCR. CRZ-Rb, in contrast, codes for a GPCR with an unusual DQL sequence at this position, still retaining a negatively-charged D residue, but lacking a positively-charged R residue, suggesting different G protein coupling. Another difference between the two splice variants is that exon 2 from CRZ-Ra codes for an N-terminal signal sequence. Normally, GPCRs do not have N-terminal signal sequences, although a few mammalian GPCRs have. In the tick CRZ-Ra, the signal sequence probably assists with inserting the receptor correctly into the RER membrane. We stably transfected Chinese Hamster Ovary cells with each of the two splice variants and carried out bioluminescence bioassays that also included the use of the human promiscuous G protein G16. CRZ-Ra turned out to be selective for I. scapularis corazonin (EC50 = 10-8 M) and could not be activated by related neuropeptides like adipokinetic hormone (AKH) and AKH/corazonin-related peptide (ACP). Similarly, also CRZ-Rb could only be activated by corazonin, although about 4-fold higher concentrations were needed to activate it (EC50 = 4 x 10-8 M). The genomic organization of the tick corazonin GPCR gene is similar to that of the insect AKH and ACP receptor genes. This similar genomic organization can also be found in the human gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor gene, confirming previous conclusions that the corazonin, AKH, and ACP receptor genes are the true arthropod orthologues of the human GnRH receptor gene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Hauser
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Malte Pallesen
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Janna Lehnhoff
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Shizhong Li
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Anna Lind
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Cornelis J P Grimmelikhuijzen
- Section for Cell and Neurobiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Das S, Greenbaum E, Meiri S, Bauer AM, Burbrink FT, Raxworthy CJ, Weinell JL, Brown RM, Brecko J, Pauwels OSG, Rabibisoa N, Raselimanana AP, Merilä J. Ultraconserved elements-based phylogenomic systematics of the snake superfamily Elapoidea, with the description of a new Afro-Asian family. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2023; 180:107700. [PMID: 36603697 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2022] [Revised: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
The highly diverse snake superfamily Elapoidea is considered to be a classic example of ancient, rapid radiation. Such radiations are challenging to fully resolve phylogenetically, with the highly diverse Elapoidea a case in point. Previous attempts at inferring a phylogeny of elapoids produced highly incongruent estimates of their evolutionary relationships, often with very low statistical support. We sought to resolve this situation by sequencing over 4,500 ultraconserved element loci from multiple representatives of every elapoid family/subfamily level taxon and inferring their phylogenetic relationships with multiple methods. Concatenation and multispecies coalescent based species trees yielded largely congruent and well-supported topologies. Hypotheses of a hard polytomy were not retained for any deep branches. Our phylogenies recovered Cyclocoridae and Elapidae as diverging early within Elapoidea. The Afro-Malagasy radiation of elapoid snakes, classified as multiple subfamilies of an inclusive Lamprophiidae by some earlier authors, was found to be monophyletic in all analyses. The genus Micrelaps was consistently recovered as sister to Lamprophiidae. We establish a new family, Micrelapidae fam. nov., for Micrelaps and assign Brachyophis to this family based on cranial osteological synapomorphy. We estimate that Elapoidea originated in the early Eocene and rapidly diversified into all the major lineages during this epoch. Ecological opportunities presented by the post-Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event may have promoted the explosive radiation of elapoid snakes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunandan Das
- Ecological Genetics Research Unit, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Eli Greenbaum
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA
| | - Shai Meiri
- School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Aaron M Bauer
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
| | - Frank T Burbrink
- Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
| | - Christopher J Raxworthy
- Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
| | - Jeffrey L Weinell
- Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Rafe M Brown
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Jonathan Brecko
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
| | - Olivier S G Pauwels
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Nirhy Rabibisoa
- Sciences de la Vie et de l'Environnement, Faculté des Sciences, de Technologies et de l'Environnement, Université de Mahajanga, Campus Universitaire d'Ambondrona, BP 652, Mahajanga 401, Madagascar
| | - Achille P Raselimanana
- Zoologie et Biodiversité Animale, Faculté des Sciences, Université d'Antananarivo, BP 906, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
| | - Juha Merilä
- Ecological Genetics Research Unit, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland; Area of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pokfulam Road, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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10
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Holmes JD, Budd GE. Reassessing a cryptic history of early trilobite evolution. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1177. [PMCID: PMC9636250 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04146-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Trilobites are an iconic Paleozoic group of biomineralizing marine euarthropods that appear abruptly in the fossil record (c. 521 million years ago) during the Cambrian ‘explosion’. This sudden appearance has proven controversial ever since Darwin puzzled over the lack of pre-trilobitic fossils in the Origin of Species, and it has generally been assumed that trilobites must have an unobserved cryptic evolutionary history reaching back into the Precambrian. Here we review the assumptions behind this model, and suggest that a cryptic history creates significant difficulties, including the invocation of rampant convergent evolution of biomineralized structures and the abandonment of the synapomorphies uniting the clade. We show that a vicariance explanation for early Cambrian trilobite palaeobiogeographic patterns is inconsistent with factors controlling extant marine invertebrate distributions, including the increasingly-recognized importance of long-distance dispersal. We suggest that survivorship bias may explain the initial rapid diversification of trilobites, and conclude that the group’s appearance at c. 521 Ma closely reflects their evolutionary origins. A reassessment of early trilobite phylogenetic relationships and palaeobiogeographic patterns suggests that a cryptic evolutionary history is unlikely for this group. The abrupt appearance of trilobites is likely to closely reflect their evolutionary origins, and may be explained by survivorship biases inherent in the fossil record.
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Affiliation(s)
- James D. Holmes
- grid.8993.b0000 0004 1936 9457Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala, 752 36 Sweden
| | - Graham E. Budd
- grid.8993.b0000 0004 1936 9457Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala, 752 36 Sweden
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11
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Sauquet H, Ramírez-Barahona S, Magallón S. What is the age of flowering plants? JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2022; 73:3840-3853. [PMID: 35438718 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erac130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The origin of flowering plants (angiosperms) was one of the most transformative events in the history of our planet. Despite considerable interest from multiple research fields, numerous questions remain, including the age of the group as a whole. Recent studies have reported a perplexing range of estimates for the crown-group age of angiosperms, from ~140 million years (Ma; Early Cretaceous) to 270 Ma (Permian). Both ends of the spectrum are now supported by both macroevolutionary analyses of the fossil record and fossil-calibrated molecular dating analyses. Here, we first clarify and distinguish among the three ages of angiosperms: the age of their divergence with acrogymnosperms (stem age); the age(s) of emergence of their unique, distinctive features including flowers (morphological age); and the age of the most recent common ancestor of all their living species (crown age). We then demonstrate, based on recent studies, that fossil-calibrated molecular dating estimates of the crown-group age of angiosperms have little to do with either the amount of molecular data or the number of internal fossil calibrations included. Instead, we argue that this age is almost entirely conditioned by its own prior distribution (typically a calibration density set by the user in Bayesian analyses). Lastly, we discuss which future discoveries or novel types of analyses are most likely to bring more definitive answers. In the meantime, we propose that the age of angiosperms is best described as largely unknown (140-270 Ma) and that contrasting age estimates in the literature mostly reflect conflicting prior distributions. We also suggest that future work that depends on the time scale of flowering plant diversification be designed to integrate over this vexing uncertainty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hervé Sauquet
- National Herbarium of New South Wales (NSW), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia
- Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Susana Magallón
- Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México
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12
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Aria C. The origin and early evolution of arthropods. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2022; 97:1786-1809. [PMID: 35475316 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The rise of arthropods is a decisive event in the history of life. Likely the first animals to have established themselves on land and in the air, arthropods have pervaded nearly all ecosystems and have become pillars of the planet's ecological networks. Forerunners of this saga, exceptionally well-preserved Palaeozoic fossils recently discovered or re-discovered using new approaches and techniques have elucidated the precocious appearance of extant lineages at the onset of the Cambrian explosion, and pointed to the critical role of the plankton and hard integuments in early arthropod diversification. The notion put forward at the beginning of the century that the acquisition of extant arthropod characters was stepwise and represented by the majority of Cambrian fossil taxa is being rewritten. Although some key traits leading to Euarthropoda are indeed well documented along a diversified phylogenetic stem, this stem led to several speciose and ecologically diverse radiations leaving descendants late into the Palaeozoic, and a large part, if not all of the Cambrian euarthropods can now be placed on either of the two extant lineages: Mandibulata and Chelicerata. These new observations and discoveries have altered our view on the nature and timing of the Cambrian explosion and clarified diagnostic characters at the origin of extant arthropods, but also raised new questions, especially with respect to cephalic plasticity. There is now strong evidence that early arthropods shared a homologous frontalmost appendage, coined here the cheira, which likely evolved into antennules and chelicerae, but other aspects, such as brain and labrum evolution, are still subject to active debate. The early evolution of panarthropods was generally driven by increased mastication and predation efficiency and sophistication, but a wealth of recent studies have also highlighted the prevalent role of suspension-feeding, for which early panarthropods developed their own adaptive feedback through both specialized appendages and the diversification of small, morphologically differentiated larvae. In a context of general integumental differentiation and hardening across Cambrian metazoans, arthrodization of body and limbs notably prompted two diverging strategies of basipod differentiation, which arguably became founding criteria in the divergence of total-groups Mandibulata and Chelicerata. The kinship of trilobites and their relatives remains a source of disagreement, but a recent topological solution, termed the 'deep split', could embed Artiopoda as sister taxa to chelicerates and constitute definitive support for Arachnomorpha. Although Cambrian fossils have been critical to all these findings, data of exceptional quality have also been accumulating from other Palaeozoic Konservat-Lagerstätten, and a better integration of this information promises a much more complete and elaborate picture of early arthropod evolution in the near future. From the broader perspective of a total-evidence approach to the understanding of life's history, and despite persisting systematic debates and new interpretative challenges, various advances based on palaeontological evidence open the prospect of finally using the full potential of the most diverse animal phylum to investigate macroevolutionary patterns and processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cédric Aria
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, P. R. China.,Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, P.R. China
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13
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Baker CM, Buckman-Young RS, Costa CS, Giribet G. Phylogenomic Analysis of Velvet Worms (Onychophora) Uncovers an Evolutionary Radiation in the Neotropics. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:5391-5404. [PMID: 34427671 PMCID: PMC8662635 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Onychophora ("velvet worms") are charismatic soil invertebrates known for their status as a "living fossil," their phylogenetic affiliation to arthropods, and their distinctive biogeographic patterns. However, several aspects of their internal phylogenetic relationships remain unresolved, limiting our understanding of the group's evolutionary history, particularly with regard to changes in reproductive mode and dispersal ability. To address these gaps, we used RNA sequencing and phylogenomic analysis of transcriptomes to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships and infer divergence times within the phylum. We recovered a fully resolved and well-supported phylogeny for the circum-Antarctic family Peripatopsidae, which retains signals of Gondwanan vicariance and showcases the evolutionary lability of reproductive mode in the family. Within the Neotropical clade of Peripatidae, though, we found that amino acid-translated sequence data masked nearly all phylogenetic signal, resulting in highly unstable and poorly supported relationships. Analyses using nucleotide sequence data were able to resolve many more relationships, though we still saw discordant phylogenetic signal between genes, probably indicative of a rapid, mid-Cretaceous radiation in the group. Finally, we hypothesize that the unique reproductive mode of placentotrophic viviparity found in all Neotropical peripatids may have facilitated the multiple inferred instances of over-water dispersal and establishment on oceanic islands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin M Baker
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rebecca S Buckman-Young
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Cristiano S Costa
- Laboratório de Sistemática e Taxonomia de Artrópodes Terrestres, Departamento de Biologia e Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil
| | - Gonzalo Giribet
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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14
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Garte S. The Continuity Principle and the Evolution of Replication Fidelity. Acta Biotheor 2021; 69:303-318. [PMID: 33249536 DOI: 10.1007/s10441-020-09399-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Evolution in modern life requires high replication fidelity to allow for natural selection. A simulation model utilizing simulated phenotype data on cellular probability of survival was developed to determine how self-replication fidelity could evolve in early life. The results indicate that initial survivability and replication fidelity both contribute to overall fitness as measured by growth rates of the cell population. Survival probability was the more dominant feature, and evolution was possible even with zero replication fidelity. A derived formula for the relationship of survival probability and replication fidelity with growth rate was consistent with the simulated empirical data. Quantitative assessment of continuity and other evidence was obtained for a saltation (non-continuous) evolutionary process starting from low to moderate levels of survival probability and self-replication fidelity to reach the high levels seen in modern life forms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seymour Garte
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, 160 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854-8020, USA.
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15
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Multiple paths to morphological diversification during the origin of amniotes. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:1243-1249. [PMID: 34312521 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01516-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Early terrestrial vertebrates (amniotes) provide a classic example of diversification following adaptive zone invasion. The initial terrestrialization of vertebrates was closely followed by dietary diversification, as evidenced by a proliferation of craniomandibular and dental adaptations. However, morphological evolution of early amniotes has received limited study, in analyses with restricted taxonomic scope, leaving substantial questions about the dynamics of this important terrestrial radiation. We use novel analyses of discrete characters to quantify variation in evolutionary rates and constraints during diversification of the amniote feeding apparatus. We find evidence for an early burst, comprising high rates of anatomical change that decelerated through time, giving way to a background of saturated morphological evolution. Subsequent expansions of phenotypic diversity were not associated with increased evolutionary rates. Instead, variation in the mode of evolution became important, with groups representing independent origins of herbivory evolving distinctive, group-specific morphologies and thereby exploring novel character-state spaces. Our findings indicate the importance of plant-animal interactions in structuring the earliest radiation of amniotes and demonstrate the importance of variation in modes of phenotypic divergence during a major evolutionary radiation.
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16
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Degli Esposti M, Moya-Beltrán A, Quatrini R, Hederstedt L. Respiratory Heme A-Containing Oxidases Originated in the Ancestors of Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:664216. [PMID: 34211444 PMCID: PMC8239418 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.664216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Respiration is a major trait shaping the biology of many environments. Cytochrome oxidase containing heme A (COX) is a common terminal oxidase in aerobic bacteria and is the only one in mammalian mitochondria. The synthesis of heme A is catalyzed by heme A synthase (CtaA/Cox15), an enzyme that most likely coevolved with COX. The evolutionary origin of COX in bacteria has remained unknown. Using extensive sequence and phylogenetic analysis, we show that the ancestral type of heme A synthases is present in iron-oxidizing Proteobacteria such as Acidithiobacillus spp. These bacteria also contain a deep branching form of the major COX subunit (COX1) and an ancestral variant of CtaG, a protein that is specifically required for COX biogenesis. Our work thus suggests that the ancestors of extant iron-oxidizers were the first to evolve COX. Consistent with this conclusion, acidophilic iron-oxidizing prokaryotes lived on emerged land around the time for which there is the earliest geochemical evidence of aerobic respiration on earth. Hence, ecological niches of iron oxidation have apparently promoted the evolution of aerobic respiration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauro Degli Esposti
- Center for Genomic Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Cuernavaca, Mexico
| | - Ana Moya-Beltrán
- Fundación Ciencia & Vida, Santiago, Chile
- ANID–Millennium Science Initiative Program–Millennium Nucleus in the Biology of the Intestinal Microbiota, Santiago, Chile
| | - Raquel Quatrini
- Fundación Ciencia & Vida, Santiago, Chile
- ANID–Millennium Science Initiative Program–Millennium Nucleus in the Biology of the Intestinal Microbiota, Santiago, Chile
- Facultad de Medicina y Ciencia, Universidad San Sebastian, Santiago, Chile
| | - Lars Hederstedt
- The Microbiology Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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17
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Beavan AJS, Pisani D, Donoghue PCJ. Diversification dynamics of total-, stem-, and crown-groups are compatible with molecular clock estimates of divergence times. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabf2257. [PMID: 34117058 PMCID: PMC8195484 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf2257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/28/2021] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Molecular evolutionary time scales are expected to predate the fossil evidence, but, particularly for major evolutionary radiations, they can imply extremely protracted stem lineages predating the origin of living clades, leading to claims of systematic overestimation of divergence times. We use macroevolutionary birth-death models to describe the range of total-group and crown-group ages expected under constant rates of speciation and extinction. We extend current predictions on origination times for crown- and total-groups, and extinction of stem-groups, demonstrating that there is broad variance in these predictions. Under constant rates of speciation and extinction, we show that the distribution of expected arthropod total-group ages is consistent with molecular clock estimates. The fossil record cannot be read literally, and our results preclude attempts to interpret the antiquity of clades based on the co-occurrence of stem- and crown-representatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan J S Beavan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - Davide Pisani
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
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18
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Neidhöfer C. On the Evolution of the Biological Framework for Insight. PHILOSOPHIES 2021; 6:43. [DOI: 10.3390/philosophies6020043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
The details of abiogenesis, to date, remain a matter of debate and constitute a key mystery in science and philosophy. The prevailing scientific hypothesis implies an evolutionary process of increasing complexity on Earth starting from (self-) replicating polymers. Defining the cut-off point where life begins is another moot point beyond the scope of this article. We will instead walk through the known evolutionary steps that led from these first exceptional polymers to the vast network of living biomatter that spans our world today, focusing in particular on perception, from simple biological feedback mechanisms to the complexity that allows for abstract thought. We will then project from the well-known to the unknown to gain a glimpse into what the universe aims to accomplish with living matter, just to find that if the universe had ever planned to be comprehended, evolution still has a long way to go.
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Mongiardino Koch N, Garwood RJ, Parry LA. Fossils improve phylogenetic analyses of morphological characters. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210044. [PMID: 33947239 PMCID: PMC8246652 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Fossils provide our only direct window into evolutionary events in the distant past. Incorporating them into phylogenetic hypotheses of living clades can help time-calibrate divergences, as well as elucidate macroevolutionary dynamics. However, the effect fossils have on phylogenetic reconstruction from morphology remains controversial. The consequences of explicitly incorporating the stratigraphic ages of fossils using tip-dated inference are also unclear. Here, we use simulations to evaluate the performance of inference methods across different levels of fossil sampling and missing data. Our results show that fossil taxa improve phylogenetic analysis of morphological datasets, even when highly fragmentary. Irrespective of inference method, fossils improve the accuracy of phylogenies and increase the number of resolved nodes. They also induce the collapse of ancient and highly uncertain relationships that tend to be incorrectly resolved when sampling only extant taxa. Furthermore, tip-dated analyses under the fossilized birth-death process outperform undated methods of inference, demonstrating that the stratigraphic ages of fossils contain vital phylogenetic information. Fossils help to extract true phylogenetic signals from morphology, an effect that is mediated by both their distinctive morphology and their temporal information, and their incorporation in total-evidence phylogenetics is necessary to faithfully reconstruct evolutionary history.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Russell J Garwood
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Luke A Parry
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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20
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Budd GE. The origin and evolution of the euarthropod labrum. ARTHROPOD STRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT 2021; 62:101048. [PMID: 33862532 DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2021.101048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Revised: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
A widely (although not universally) accepted model of arthropod head evolution postulates that the labrum, a structure seen in almost all living euarthropods, evolved from an anterior pair of appendages homologous to the frontal appendages of onychophorans. However, the implications of this model for the interpretation of fossil arthropods have not been fully integrated into reconstructions of the euarthropod stem group, which remains in a state of some disorder. Here I review the evidence for the nature and evolution of the labrum from living taxa, and reconsider how fossils should be interpreted in the light of this. Identification of the segmental identity of head appendage in fossil arthropods remains problematic, and often rests ultimately on unproven assertions. New evidence from the Cambrian stem-group euarthropod Parapeytoia is presented to suggest that an originally protocerebral appendage persisted well up into the upper stem-group of the euarthropods, which prompts a re-evaluation of widely-accepted segmental homologies and the interpretation of fossil central nervous systems. Only a protocerebral brain was implicitly present in a large part of the euarthropod stem group, and the deutocerebrum must have been a relatively late addition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham E Budd
- Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology Programme, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala, SE 752 36, Sweden.
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21
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Swain A, Devereux M, Fagan WF. Deciphering trophic interactions in a mid-Cambrian assemblage. iScience 2021; 24:102271. [PMID: 33817576 PMCID: PMC8010449 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Exceptionally preserved fossil sites have allowed specimen-based identification of trophic interactions to which network analyses have been applied. However, network analyses of the fossil record suffer from incomplete and indirect data, time averaging that obscures species coexistence, and biases in preservation. Here, we present a high-resolution fossil data set from Raymond Quarry member of the mid-Cambrian Burgess Shale (7,549 specimens, 61 taxa, ∼510 Mya) and formulate a measure of "preservation bias" that aids identification of assemblage subsets to which network analyses can be reliably applied. For these sections, abundance correlation network analyses predicted longitudinally consistent trophic and competitive interactions. Our analyses predicted previously postulated trophic interactions with 83.5% accuracy and demonstrated a shift from specialist interaction-dominated assemblages to ones dominated by generalist and competitive interactions. This approach provides a robust, taphonomically corrected framework to explore and predict in detail the existence and ecological character of putative interactions in fossil data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anshuman Swain
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Matthew Devereux
- Department of Earth Science, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - William F. Fagan
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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22
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Kumawat B, Bhat R. An interplay of resource availability, population size and mutation rate potentiates the evolution of metabolic signaling. BMC Ecol Evol 2021; 21:52. [PMID: 33827412 PMCID: PMC8028831 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-021-01782-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2020] [Accepted: 03/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Asexually reproducing populations of single cells evolve through mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift. Environmental conditions in which the evolution takes place define the emergent fitness landscapes. In this work, we used Avida—a digital evolution framework—to uncover a hitherto unexplored interaction between mutation rates, population size, and the relative abundance of metabolizable resources, and its effect on evolutionary outcomes in small populations of digital organisms. Results Over each simulation, the population evolved to one of several states, each associated with a single dominant phenotype with its associated fitness and genotype. For a low mutation rate, acquisition of fitness by organisms was accompanied with, and dependent on, an increase in rate of genomic replication. At an increased mutation rate, phenotypes with high fitness values were similarly achieved through enhanced genome replication rates. In addition, we also observed the frequent emergence of suboptimal fitness phenotype, wherein neighboring organisms signaled to each other information relevant to performing metabolic tasks. This metabolic signaling was vital to fitness acquisition and was correlated with greater genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity in the population. The frequency of appearance of signaling populations increased with population size and with resource abundance. Conclusions Our results reveal a minimal set of environment–genotype interactions that lead to the emergence of metabolic signaling within evolving populations. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-021-01782-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bhaskar Kumawat
- Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Ramray Bhat
- Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India.
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23
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Keating JN, Sansom RS, Sutton MD, Knight CG, Garwood RJ. Morphological Phylogenetics Evaluated Using Novel Evolutionary Simulations. Syst Biol 2020; 69:897-912. [PMID: 32073641 PMCID: PMC7440746 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syaa012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Revised: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 02/07/2020] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary inferences require reliable phylogenies. Morphological data have traditionally been analyzed using maximum parsimony, but recent simulation studies have suggested that Bayesian analyses yield more accurate trees. This debate is ongoing, in part, because of ambiguity over modes of morphological evolution and a lack of appropriate models. Here, we investigate phylogenetic methods using two novel simulation models-one in which morphological characters evolve stochastically along lineages and another in which individuals undergo selection. Both models generate character data and lineage splitting simultaneously: the resulting trees are an emergent property, rather than a fixed parameter. Standard consensus methods for Bayesian searches (Mki) yield fewer incorrect nodes and quartets than the standard consensus trees recovered using equal weighting and implied weighting parsimony searches. Distances between the pool of derived trees (most parsimonious or posterior distribution) and the true trees-measured using Robinson-Foulds (RF), subtree prune and regraft (SPR), and tree bisection reconnection (TBR) metrics-demonstrate that this is related to the search strategy and consensus method of each technique. The amount and structure of homoplasy in character data differ between models. Morphological coherence, which has previously not been considered in this context, proves to be a more important factor for phylogenetic accuracy than homoplasy. Selection-based models exhibit relatively lower homoplasy, lower morphological coherence, and higher inaccuracy in inferred trees. Selection is a dominant driver of morphological evolution, but we demonstrate that it has a confounding effect on numerous character properties which are fundamental to phylogenetic inference. We suggest that the current debate should move beyond considerations of parsimony versus Bayesian, toward identifying modes of morphological evolution and using these to build models for probabilistic search methods. [Bayesian; evolution; morphology; parsimony; phylogenetics; selection; simulation.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph N Keating
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universityof Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Robert S Sansom
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universityof Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Mark D Sutton
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Christopher G Knight
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universityof Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Russell J Garwood
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universityof Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 5BD, UK
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24
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Budd GE, Mann RP. Survival and selection biases in early animal evolution and a source of systematic overestimation in molecular clocks. Interface Focus 2020; 10:20190110. [PMID: 32637066 PMCID: PMC7333906 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2019.0110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Important evolutionary events such as the Cambrian Explosion have inspired many attempts at explanation: why do they happen when they do? What shapes them, and why do they eventually come to an end? However, much less attention has been paid to the idea of a 'null hypothesis'-that certain features of such diversifications arise simply through their statistical structure. Such statistical features also appear to influence our perception of the timing of these events. Here, we show in particular that study of unusually large clades leads to systematic overestimates of clade ages from some types of molecular clocks, and that the size of this effect may be enough to account for the puzzling mismatches seen between these molecular clocks and the fossil record. Our analysis of the fossil record of the late Ediacaran to Cambrian suggests that it is likely to be recording a true evolutionary radiation of the bilaterians at this time, and that explanations involving various sorts of cryptic origins for the bilaterians do not seem to be necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham E. Budd
- Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala 752 36, Sweden
| | - Richard P. Mann
- Department of Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
- The Alan Turing Institute, London NW1 2DB, UK
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25
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Simões TR, Vernygora O, Caldwell MW, Pierce SE. Megaevolutionary dynamics and the timing of evolutionary innovation in reptiles. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3322. [PMID: 32620878 PMCID: PMC7335191 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17190-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin of phenotypic diversity among higher clades is one of the most fundamental topics in evolutionary biology. However, due to methodological challenges, few studies have assessed rates of evolution and phenotypic disparity across broad scales of time to understand the evolutionary dynamics behind the origin and early evolution of new clades. Here, we provide a total-evidence dating approach to this problem in diapsid reptiles. We find major chronological gaps between periods of high evolutionary rates (phenotypic and molecular) and expansion in phenotypic disparity in reptile evolution. Importantly, many instances of accelerated phenotypic evolution are detected at the origin of major clades and body plans, but not concurrent with previously proposed periods of adaptive radiation. Furthermore, strongly heterogenic rates of evolution mark the acquisition of similarly adapted functional types, and the origin of snakes is marked by the highest rates of phenotypic evolution in diapsid history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiago R Simões
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
| | - Oksana Vernygora
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
| | - Michael W Caldwell
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
| | - Stephanie E Pierce
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
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26
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Thomas GWC, Dohmen E, Hughes DST, Murali SC, Poelchau M, Glastad K, Anstead CA, Ayoub NA, Batterham P, Bellair M, Binford GJ, Chao H, Chen YH, Childers C, Dinh H, Doddapaneni HV, Duan JJ, Dugan S, Esposito LA, Friedrich M, Garb J, Gasser RB, Goodisman MAD, Gundersen-Rindal DE, Han Y, Handler AM, Hatakeyama M, Hering L, Hunter WB, Ioannidis P, Jayaseelan JC, Kalra D, Khila A, Korhonen PK, Lee CE, Lee SL, Li Y, Lindsey ARI, Mayer G, McGregor AP, McKenna DD, Misof B, Munidasa M, Munoz-Torres M, Muzny DM, Niehuis O, Osuji-Lacy N, Palli SR, Panfilio KA, Pechmann M, Perry T, Peters RS, Poynton HC, Prpic NM, Qu J, Rotenberg D, Schal C, Schoville SD, Scully ED, Skinner E, Sloan DB, Stouthamer R, Strand MR, Szucsich NU, Wijeratne A, Young ND, Zattara EE, Benoit JB, Zdobnov EM, Pfrender ME, Hackett KJ, Werren JH, Worley KC, Gibbs RA, Chipman AD, Waterhouse RM, Bornberg-Bauer E, Hahn MW, Richards S. Gene content evolution in the arthropods. Genome Biol 2020; 21:15. [PMID: 31969194 PMCID: PMC6977273 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-019-1925-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 106] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2019] [Accepted: 12/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. RESULTS Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. CONCLUSIONS These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregg W. C. Thomas
- 0000 0001 0790 959Xgrid.411377.7Department of Biology and Department of Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA
| | - Elias Dohmen
- Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münsterss, 48149 Münster, Germany ,0000 0001 2287 2617grid.9026.dInstitute for Bioinformatics and Chemoinformatics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany ,Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, 45665 Recklinghausen, Germany
| | - Daniel S. T. Hughes
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA ,0000000419368729grid.21729.3fPresent Address: Institute for Genomic Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032 USA
| | - Shwetha C. Murali
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA ,0000000122986657grid.34477.33Present Address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
| | - Monica Poelchau
- 0000 0001 2113 2895grid.483014.aNational Agricultural Library, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705 USA
| | - Karl Glastad
- 0000 0001 2097 4943grid.213917.fSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA ,0000 0004 1936 8972grid.25879.31Present Address: Penn Epigenetics Institute, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
| | - Clare A. Anstead
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Nadia A. Ayoub
- grid.268042.aDepartment of Biology, Washington and Lee University, 204 West Washington Street, Lexington, VA 24450 USA
| | - Phillip Batterham
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9School of BioSciences Science Faculty, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Michelle Bellair
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA ,Present Address: CooperGenomics, Houston, TX USA
| | - Greta J. Binford
- 0000 0004 1936 9043grid.259053.8Department of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR 97219 USA
| | - Hsu Chao
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Yolanda H. Chen
- 0000 0004 1936 7689grid.59062.38Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA
| | - Christopher Childers
- 0000 0001 2113 2895grid.483014.aNational Agricultural Library, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705 USA
| | - Huyen Dinh
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Harsha Vardhan Doddapaneni
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Jian J. Duan
- 0000 0004 0404 0958grid.463419.dBeneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Newark, DE USA
| | - Shannon Dugan
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Lauren A. Esposito
- 0000 0004 0461 6769grid.242287.9Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118 USA
| | - Markus Friedrich
- 0000 0001 1456 7807grid.254444.7Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 USA
| | - Jessica Garb
- 0000 0000 9620 1122grid.225262.3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 198 Riverside Street, Lowell, MA 01854 USA
| | - Robin B. Gasser
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Michael A. D. Goodisman
- 0000 0001 2097 4943grid.213917.fSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA
| | - Dawn E. Gundersen-Rindal
- 0000 0004 0404 0958grid.463419.dUSDA-ARS Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, Beltsville, MD USA
| | - Yi Han
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Alfred M. Handler
- 0000 0004 0404 0958grid.463419.dUSDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, 1700 S.W. 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL 32608 USA
| | - Masatsugu Hatakeyama
- 0000 0001 0699 0373grid.410590.9Division of Insect Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Owashi, Tsukuba, 305-8634 Japan
| | - Lars Hering
- 0000 0001 1089 1036grid.5155.4Department of Zoology, Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, 34132 Kassel, Germany
| | - Wayne B. Hunter
- 0000 0004 0404 0958grid.463419.dUSDA ARS, U. S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, Ft. Pierce, FL 34945 USA
| | - Panagiotis Ioannidis
- 0000 0001 2322 4988grid.8591.5Department of Genetic Medicine and Development and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland ,0000 0004 0635 685Xgrid.4834.bPresent Address: Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Vassilika Vouton, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Joy C. Jayaseelan
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Divya Kalra
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Abderrahman Khila
- 0000 0001 2150 7757grid.7849.2Université de Lyon, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364 Lyon, France
| | - Pasi K. Korhonen
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Carol Eunmi Lee
- 0000 0001 0701 8607grid.28803.31Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 USA
| | - Sandra L. Lee
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Yiyuan Li
- 0000 0001 2168 0066grid.131063.6Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 109B Galvin Life Sciences, Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA
| | - Amelia R. I. Lindsey
- 0000 0001 2222 1582grid.266097.cDepartment of Entomology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA USA ,0000 0001 0790 959Xgrid.411377.7Present Address: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA
| | - Georg Mayer
- 0000 0001 1089 1036grid.5155.4Department of Zoology, Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, 34132 Kassel, Germany
| | - Alistair P. McGregor
- 0000 0001 0726 8331grid.7628.bDepartment of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP UK
| | - Duane D. McKenna
- 0000 0000 9560 654Xgrid.56061.34Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, 3700 Walker Ave, Memphis, TN 38152 USA
| | - Bernhard Misof
- 0000 0001 2216 5875grid.452935.cCenter for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
| | - Mala Munidasa
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Monica Munoz-Torres
- 0000 0001 2231 4551grid.184769.5Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA ,0000 0004 4665 2899grid.497331.bPresent Address: Phoenix Bioinformatics, 39221 Paseo Padre Parkway, Ste. J., Fremont, CA 94538 USA
| | - Donna M. Muzny
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Oliver Niehuis
- grid.5963.9Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute of Biology I (Zoology), Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg (Brsg.), Germany
| | - Nkechinyere Osuji-Lacy
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Subba R. Palli
- 0000 0004 1936 8438grid.266539.dDepartment of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546 USA
| | - Kristen A. Panfilio
- 0000 0000 8809 1613grid.7372.1School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Campus, Coventry, CV4 7AL UK
| | - Matthias Pechmann
- 0000 0000 8580 3777grid.6190.eCologne Biocenter, Zoological Institute, Department of Developmental Biology, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany
| | - Trent Perry
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9School of BioSciences Science Faculty, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Ralph S. Peters
- 0000 0001 2216 5875grid.452935.cCentre of Taxonomy and Evolutionary Research, Arthropoda Department, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
| | - Helen C. Poynton
- 0000 0004 0386 3207grid.266685.9School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125 USA
| | - Nikola-Michael Prpic
- 0000 0001 2364 4210grid.7450.6Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Abteilung für Entwicklungsbiologie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany ,0000 0001 2364 4210grid.7450.6Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jiaxin Qu
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Dorith Rotenberg
- 0000 0001 2173 6074grid.40803.3fDepartment of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606 USA
| | - Coby Schal
- 0000 0001 2173 6074grid.40803.3fDepartment of Entomology and W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 USA
| | - Sean D. Schoville
- 0000 0001 2167 3675grid.14003.36Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
| | - Erin D. Scully
- Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research Unit, USDA-ARS Center for Grain and Animal Health Research, Manhattan, KS 66502 USA
| | - Evette Skinner
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Daniel B. Sloan
- 0000 0004 1936 8083grid.47894.36Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO USA
| | - Richard Stouthamer
- 0000 0001 2222 1582grid.266097.cDepartment of Entomology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA USA
| | - Michael R. Strand
- 0000 0004 1936 738Xgrid.213876.9Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
| | - Nikolaus U. Szucsich
- 0000 0001 2169 5989grid.252381.fPresent Address: Arkansas Biosciences Institute, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR USA
| | - Asela Wijeratne
- 0000 0000 9560 654Xgrid.56061.34Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, 3700 Walker Ave, Memphis, TN 38152 USA ,0000 0001 2112 4115grid.425585.bNatural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Neil D. Young
- 0000 0001 2179 088Xgrid.1008.9Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
| | - Eduardo E. Zattara
- 0000 0001 2112 473Xgrid.412234.2INIBIOMA, Univ. Nacional del Comahue – CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina
| | - Joshua B. Benoit
- 0000 0001 2179 9593grid.24827.3bDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221 USA
| | - Evgeny M. Zdobnov
- 0000 0001 2322 4988grid.8591.5Department of Genetic Medicine and Development and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Michael E. Pfrender
- 0000 0001 2168 0066grid.131063.6Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 109B Galvin Life Sciences, Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA
| | - Kevin J. Hackett
- 0000 0004 0404 0958grid.463419.dCrop Production and Protection, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705 USA
| | - John H. Werren
- 0000 0004 1936 9174grid.16416.34Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627 USA
| | - Kim C. Worley
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Richard A. Gibbs
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA
| | - Ariel D. Chipman
- 0000 0004 1937 0538grid.9619.7Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Robert M. Waterhouse
- 0000 0001 2165 4204grid.9851.5Department of Ecology & Evolution and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Erich Bornberg-Bauer
- Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münsterss, 48149 Münster, Germany ,0000 0001 2287 2617grid.9026.dInstitute for Bioinformatics and Chemoinformatics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany ,0000 0001 1014 8330grid.419495.4Department Protein Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Matthew W. Hahn
- 0000 0001 0790 959Xgrid.411377.7Department of Biology and Department of Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA
| | - Stephen Richards
- 0000 0001 2160 926Xgrid.39382.33Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA ,0000 0004 1936 9684grid.27860.3bPresent Address: UC Davis Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 USA
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Rosa BB, Melo GAR, Barbeitos MS. Homoplasy-Based Partitioning Outperforms Alternatives in Bayesian Analysis of Discrete Morphological Data. Syst Biol 2019; 68:657-671. [PMID: 30649562 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syz001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2017] [Revised: 12/20/2018] [Accepted: 01/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Bayesian analysis of morphological data is becoming increasingly popular mainly (but not only) because it allows for time-calibrated phylogenetic inference using relaxed morphological clocks and tip dating whenever fossils are available. As with molecular data, recent studies have shown that modeling among-character rate variation (ACRV) in morphological matrices greatly improves phylogenetic inference. In a likelihood framework this may be accomplished, for instance, by employing a hidden Markov model to assign characters to rate categories drawn from a (discretized) $\Gamma$ distribution and/or by partitioning data sets according to rate heterogeneity and estimating per-partition branch lengths, conditioned on a single topology. While the first approach is available in many phylogenetic analysis software, there is still no clear consensus on how to partition data, except perhaps in the simplest cases (e.g., "by codon" partitioning of coding sequences). Additionally, there is a trade-off between improvement in likelihood scores and the number of free parameters in the analysis, which rises quickly with the number of partitions. This trade-off may be dealt with by employing statistics that penalize overfitting of complex models, such as Akaike or Bayesian information criteria, or the more recently introduced stepping-stone method for marginal likelihood approximation. We applied the latter to three distinct matrices of discrete morphological data and demonstrated that sorting characters by homoplasy scores (obtained from implied weighting parsimony analysis) outperformed other partitioning strategies (anatomically-based and PartitionFinder2). The method was in fact so efficient in segregating characters by rates of evolution that no within-partition ACRV modeling was necessary, while among-partition rate variation was adequately accommodated by rate multipliers. We conclude that partitioning by homoplasy is a powerful and easy-to-implement strategy to address ACRV in complex data sets. We provide some guidelines focusing on morphological matrices, although this approach may be also applicable to molecular data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brunno B Rosa
- Laboratório de Biologia Comparada de Hymenoptera, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Caixa Postal 19020, Curitiba 81530-980, Brazil
| | - Gabriel A R Melo
- Laboratório de Biologia Comparada de Hymenoptera, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Caixa Postal 19020, Curitiba 81530-980, Brazil
| | - Marcos S Barbeitos
- Laboratório de Evolução dos Organismos Marinhos, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba 81530-980, Brazil
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Xu B, Shi Y, Wu Y, Meng Y, Jin Y. Role of RNA secondary structures in regulating Dscam alternative splicing. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-GENE REGULATORY MECHANISMS 2019; 1862:194381. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2019.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2019] [Revised: 04/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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Evo-Devo Algorithms: Gene-Regulation for Digital Architecture. Biomimetics (Basel) 2019; 4:biomimetics4030058. [PMID: 31412569 PMCID: PMC6784289 DOI: 10.3390/biomimetics4030058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2019] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The majority of current visual-algorithmic architecture is constricted to specific parameters that are gradient related, keeping their parts’ relation fixed within the algorithm, far away from a truly parametric modeling with a flexible topology. Recent findings around genetics and certain genes capable of shape conditioning (development) have succeeded in recovering the science of embryology as a valid field that connects and affects the evolutionary ecosystem, showing the existence of universal mechanisms that are present in living species, thus describing powerful strategies for generation and emergence. Therefore, a new dual discipline is justified: Evolutionary developmental biology science. Authors propose the convergence of genetics algorithms and simulated features from evolutionary developmental biology into a single data-flow that will prove itself capable of generating great diversity through a simple and flexible structure of data, commands, and polygonal geometry. For that matter, a case study through visual-algorithmic software deals with the hypothesis that for obtaining a greater emergence and design space, a simpler and more flexible approach might only be required, prioritizing hierarchical levels over complex and detailed operations.
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Sperling EA, Stockey RG. The Temporal and Environmental Context of Early Animal Evolution: Considering All the Ingredients of an "Explosion". Integr Comp Biol 2019; 58:605-622. [PMID: 30295813 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Animals originated and evolved during a unique time in Earth history-the Neoproterozoic Era. This paper aims to discuss (1) when landmark events in early animal evolution occurred, and (2) the environmental context of these evolutionary milestones, and how such factors may have affected ecosystems and body plans. With respect to timing, molecular clock studies-utilizing a diversity of methodologies-agree that animal multicellularity had arisen by ∼800 million years ago (Ma) (Tonian period), the bilaterian body plan by ∼650 Ma (Cryogenian), and divergences between sister phyla occurred ∼560-540 Ma (late Ediacaran). Most purported Tonian and Cryogenian animal body fossils are unlikely to be correctly identified, but independent support for the presence of pre-Ediacaran animals is recorded by organic geochemical biomarkers produced by demosponges. This view of animal origins contrasts with data from the fossil record, and the taphonomic question of why animals were not preserved (if present) remains unresolved. Neoproterozoic environments demanding small, thin, body plans, and lower abundance/rarity in populations may have played a role. Considering environmental conditions, geochemical data suggest that animals evolved in a relatively low-oxygen ocean. Here, we present new analyses of sedimentary total organic carbon contents in shales suggesting that the Neoproterozoic ocean may also have had lower primary productivity-or at least lower quantities of organic carbon reaching the seafloor-compared with the Phanerozoic. Indeed, recent modeling efforts suggest that low primary productivity is an expected corollary of a low-O2 world. Combined with an inability to inhabit productive regions in a low-O2 ocean, earliest animal communities would likely have been more food limited than generally appreciated, impacting both ecosystem structure and organismal behavior. In light of this, we propose the "fire triangle" metaphor for environmental influences on early animal evolution. Moving toward consideration of all environmental aspects of the Cambrian radiation (fuel, heat, and oxidant) will ultimately lead to a more holistic view of the event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik A Sperling
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Building 320, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Richard G Stockey
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Building 320, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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33
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Six Impossible Things before Breakfast: Assumptions, Models, and Belief in Molecular Dating. Trends Ecol Evol 2019; 34:474-486. [PMID: 30904189 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.01.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2018] [Revised: 01/29/2019] [Accepted: 01/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Confidence in molecular dating analyses has grown with the increasing sophistication of the methods. Some problematic cases where molecular dates disagreed with paleontological estimates appear to have been resolved with a growing agreement between molecules and fossils. But we cannot relax just yet. The growing analytical sophistication of many molecular dating methods relies on an increasingly large number of assumptions about evolutionary history and processes. Many of these assumptions are based on statistical tractability rather than being informed by improved understanding of molecular evolution, yet changing the assumptions can influence molecular dates. How can we tell if the answers we get are driven more by the assumptions we make than by the molecular data being analyzed?
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Smith MR. Bayesian and parsimony approaches reconstruct informative trees from simulated morphological datasets. Biol Lett 2019; 15:20180632. [PMID: 30958126 PMCID: PMC6405459 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2018] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Phylogenetic analysis aims to establish the true relationships between taxa. Different analytical methods, however, can reach different conclusions. In order to establish which approach best reconstructs true relationships, previous studies have simulated datasets from known tree topologies, and identified the method that reconstructs the generative tree most accurately. On this basis, researchers have argued that morphological datasets should be analysed by Bayesian approaches, which employ an explicit probabilistic model of evolution, rather than parsimony methods-with implied weights parsimony sometimes identified as particularly inaccurate. Accuracy alone, however, is an inadequate measure of a tree's utility: a fully unresolved tree is perfectly accurate, yet contains no phylogenetic information. The highly resolved trees recovered by implied weights parsimony in fact contain as much useful information as the more accurate, but less resolved, trees recovered by Bayesian methods. By collapsing poorly supported groups, this superior resolution can be traded for accuracy, resulting in trees as accurate as those obtained by a Bayesian approach. By contrast, equally weighted parsimony analysis produces trees that are less resolved and less accurate, leading to less reliable evolutionary conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin R. Smith
- Department of Earth Sciences, Lower Mount Joy, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
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35
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Trilobite evolutionary rates constrain the duration of the Cambrian explosion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:4394-4399. [PMID: 30782836 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1819366116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Trilobites are often considered exemplary for understanding the Cambrian explosion of animal life, due to their unsurpassed diversity and abundance. These biomineralized arthropods appear abruptly in the fossil record with an established diversity, phylogenetic disparity, and provincialism at the beginning of Cambrian Series 2 (∼521 Ma), suggesting a protracted but cryptic earlier history that possibly extends into the Precambrian. However, recent analyses indicate elevated rates of phenotypic and genomic evolution for arthropods during the early Cambrian, thereby shortening the phylogenetic fuse. Furthermore, comparatively little research has been devoted to understanding the duration of the Cambrian explosion, after which normal Phanerozoic evolutionary rates were established. We test these hypotheses by applying Bayesian tip-dating methods to a comprehensive dataset of Cambrian trilobites. We show that trilobites have a Cambrian origin, as supported by the trace fossil record and molecular clocks. Surprisingly, they exhibit constant evolutionary rates across the entire Cambrian, for all aspects of the preserved phenotype: discrete, meristic, and continuous morphological traits. Our data therefore provide robust, quantitative evidence that by the time the typical Cambrian fossil record begins (∼521 Ma), the Cambrian explosion had already largely concluded. This suggests that a modern-style marine biosphere had rapidly emerged during the latest Ediacaran and earliest Cambrian (∼20 million years), followed by broad-scale evolutionary stasis throughout the remainder of the Cambrian.
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López-Estrada EK, Sanmartín I, García-París M, Zaldívar-Riverón A. High extinction rates and non-adaptive radiation explains patterns of low diversity and extreme morphological disparity in North American blister beetles (Coleoptera, Meloidae). Mol Phylogenet Evol 2019; 130:156-168. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.09.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2018] [Revised: 07/24/2018] [Accepted: 09/22/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Abstract
This study investigated long-term substitution rate differences using three calibration points, divergences between lobe-finned vertebrates and ray-finned fish, between mammals and sauropsids, and between holosteans (gar and bowfin) and teleost fish with amino acid sequence data of 625 genes for 25 bony vertebrates. The result showed that the substitution rate was two to three times higher in the stem branches of lobe-finned vertebrates before the mammal-sauropsid divergence than in amniotes. The rate in the stem branch of ray-finned fish before the holostean-teleost fish divergence was also a few times higher than the holostean rate, whereas it was similar to or somewhat slower than the teleost fish rate. The phylogenetic relationship of coelacanth and lungfish with tetrapod was difficult to determine because of the short interval of the divergences. Considering the high rate in the stem branches, the divergences of coelacanth and lungfish from the stem branch were estimated as 408–427 Ma and 399–414 Ma, respectively, with the interval of 9–13 Myr. With the external calibration of the mammal-sauropsid split, the estimated times for ordinal divergences within eutherian mammals tend to be smaller than those in previous studies that used the calibration points within the lineage, with deeper divergences before the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary and shallower ones after the boundary. In contrast the estimated times within birds were larger than those of previous studies, with the divergence between Galliformes and Anseriformes ∼80 Ma and that between Galloanserae and Neoaves 110 Ma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naoko Takezaki
- Life Science Research Center, Kagawa University, Kitagun, Kagawa, Japan
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38
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Boudinot BE. A general theory of genital homologies for the Hexapoda (Pancrustacea) derived from skeletomuscular correspondences, with emphasis on the Endopterygota. ARTHROPOD STRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT 2018; 47:563-613. [PMID: 30419291 DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2018.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2017] [Revised: 10/16/2018] [Accepted: 11/03/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
No consensus exists for the homology and terminology of the male genitalia of the Hexapoda despite over a century of debate. Based on dissections and the literature, genital skeletomusculature was compared across the Hexapoda and contrasted with the Remipedia, the closest pancrustacean outgroup. The pattern of origin and insertion for extrinsic and intrinsic genitalic musculature was found to be consistent among the Ectognatha, Protura, and the Remipedia, allowing for the inference of homologies given recent phylogenomic studies. The penis of the Hexapoda is inferred to be derived from medially-fused primary gonopods (gonopore-bearing limbs), while the genitalia of the Ectognatha are inferred to include both the tenth-segmental penis and the ninth-segmental secondary gonopods, similar to the genitalia of female insects which comprise gonopods of the eighth and ninth segments. A new nomenclatural system for hexapodan genitalic musculature is presented and applied, and a general list of anatomical concepts is provided. Novel and refined homologies are proposed for all hexapodan orders, and a series of groundplans are postulated. Emphasis is placed on the Endopterygota, for which fine-grained transition series are hypothesized given observed skeletomuscular correspondences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brendon E Boudinot
- Department of Entomology & Nematology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Toman J, Flegr J. A Virtue Made of Necessity: Is the Increasing Hierarchical Complexity of Sexual Clades an Inevitable Outcome of Their Declining (Macro)evolutionary Potential? Evol Biol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s11692-018-9462-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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40
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Budd GE, Mann RP. History is written by the victors: The effect of the push of the past on the fossil record. Evolution 2018; 72:2276-2291. [PMID: 30257040 PMCID: PMC6282550 DOI: 10.1111/evo.13593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Accepted: 09/01/2018] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Survivorship biases can generate remarkable apparent rate heterogeneities through time in otherwise homogeneous birth‐death models of phylogenies. They are a potential explanation for many striking patterns seen in the fossil record and molecular phylogenies. One such bias is the “push of the past”: clades that survived a substantial length of time are likely to have experienced a high rate of early diversification. This creates the illusion of a secular rate slow‐down through time that is, rather, a reversion to the mean. An extra effect increasing early rates of lineage generation is also seen in large clades. These biases are important but relatively neglected influences on many aspects of diversification patterns in the fossil record and elsewhere, such as diversification spikes after mass extinctions and at the origins of clades; they also influence rates of fossilization, changes in rates of phenotypic evolution and even molecular clocks. These inevitable features of surviving and/or large clades should thus not be generalized to the diversification process as a whole without additional study of small and extinct clades, and raise questions about many of the traditional explanations of the patterns seen in the fossil record.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham E Budd
- Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala, SE 752 36, Sweden
| | - Richard P Mann
- Department of Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
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Schwentner M, Richter S, Rogers DC, Giribet G. Tetraconatan phylogeny with special focus on Malacostraca and Branchiopoda: highlighting the strength of taxon-specific matrices in phylogenomics. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:20181524. [PMID: 30135168 PMCID: PMC6125901 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2018] [Accepted: 07/18/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the evolution of Tetraconata or Pancrustacea-the clade that includes crustaceans and insects-requires a well-resolved hypothesis regarding the relationships within and among its constituent taxa. Here, we assembled a taxon-rich phylogenomic dataset focusing on crustacean lineages based solely on genomes and new-generation Illumina-generated transcriptomes, including 89 representatives of Tetraconata. This constitutes, to our knowledge, the first phylogenomic study specifically addressing internal relationships of Malacostraca (with 26 species included) and Branchiopoda (36 species). Seven matrices comprising 81-684 orthogroups and 17 690-242 530 amino acid positions were assembled and analysed under five different analytical approaches. To maximize gene occupancy and to improve resolution, taxon-specific matrices were designed for Malacostraca and Branchiopoda. Key tetraconatan taxa (i.e. Oligostraca, Multicrustacea, Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Thecostraca, Copepoda and Hexapoda) were monophyletic and well supported. Within Branchiopoda, Phyllopoda, Diplostraca, Cladoceromorpha and Cladocera were monophyletic. Within Malacostraca, the clades Eumalacostraca, Decapoda and Reptantia were well supported. Recovery of Caridoida or Peracarida was highly dependent on the analysis for the complete matrix, but it was consistently monophyletic in the malacostracan-specific matrices. From such examples, we demonstrate that taxon-specific matrices and particular evolutionary models and analytical methods, namely CAT-GTR and Dayhoff recoding, outperform other approaches in resolving certain recalcitrant nodes in phylogenomic analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Schwentner
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Centrum of Natural History, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Richter
- Allgemeine und Spezielle Zoologie, Universität Rostock, Universitätsplatz 2, 18055 Rostock, Germany
| | - D Christopher Rogers
- Kansas Biological Survey, Kansas University, Higuchi Hall, 2101 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA
| | - Gonzalo Giribet
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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42
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Phillips MJ, Fruciano C. The soft explosive model of placental mammal evolution. BMC Evol Biol 2018; 18:104. [PMID: 29969980 PMCID: PMC6029115 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-018-1218-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2017] [Accepted: 06/19/2018] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent molecular dating estimates for placental mammals echo fossil inferences for an explosive interordinal diversification, but typically place this event some 10-20 million years earlier than the Paleocene fossils, among apparently more "primitive" mammal faunas. RESULTS However, current models of molecular evolution do not adequately account for parallel rate changes, and result in dramatic divergence underestimates for large, long-lived mammals such as whales and hominids. Calibrating among these taxa shifts the rate model errors deeper in the tree, inflating interordinal divergence estimates. We employ simulations based on empirical rate variation, which show that this "error-shift inflation" can explain previous molecular dating overestimates relative to fossil inferences. Molecular dating accuracy is substantially improved in the simulations by focusing on calibrations for taxa that retain plesiomorphic life-history characteristics. Applying this strategy to the empirical data favours the soft explosive model of placental evolution, in line with traditional palaeontological interpretations - a few Cretaceous placental lineages give rise to a rapid interordinal diversification following the 66 Ma Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary mass extinction. CONCLUSIONS Our soft explosive model for the diversification of placental mammals brings into agreement previously incongruous molecular, fossil, and ancestral life history estimates, and closely aligns with a growing consensus for a similar model for bird evolution. We show that recent criticism of the soft explosive model relies on ignoring both experimental controls and statistical confidence, as well as misrepresentation, and inconsistent interpretations of morphological phylogeny. More generally, we suggest that the evolutionary properties of adaptive radiations may leave current molecular dating methods susceptible to overestimating the timing of major diversification events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J. Phillips
- School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Carmelo Fruciano
- School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
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43
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Daley AC, Antcliffe JB, Drage HB, Pates S. Early fossil record of Euarthropoda and the Cambrian Explosion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:5323-5331. [PMID: 29784780 PMCID: PMC6003487 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719962115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Euarthropoda is one of the best-preserved fossil animal groups and has been the most diverse animal phylum for over 500 million years. Fossil Konservat-Lagerstätten, such as Burgess Shale-type deposits (BSTs), show the evolution of the euarthropod stem lineage during the Cambrian from 518 million years ago (Ma). The stem lineage includes nonbiomineralized groups, such as Radiodonta (e.g., Anomalocaris) that provide insight into the step-by-step construction of euarthropod morphology, including the exoskeleton, biramous limbs, segmentation, and cephalic structures. Trilobites are crown group euarthropods that appear in the fossil record at 521 Ma, before the stem lineage fossils, implying a ghost lineage that needs to be constrained. These constraints come from the trace fossil record, which show the first evidence for total group Euarthropoda (e.g., Cruziana, Rusophycus) at around 537 Ma. A deep Precambrian root to the euarthropod evolutionary lineage is disproven by a comparison of Ediacaran and Cambrian lagerstätten. BSTs from the latest Ediacaran Period (e.g., Miaohe biota, 550 Ma) are abundantly fossiliferous with algae but completely lack animals, which are also missing from other Ediacaran windows, such as phosphate deposits (e.g., Doushantuo, 560 Ma). This constrains the appearance of the euarthropod stem lineage to no older than 550 Ma. While each of the major types of fossil evidence (BSTs, trace fossils, and biomineralized preservation) have their limitations and are incomplete in different ways, when taken together they allow a coherent picture to emerge of the origin and subsequent radiation of total group Euarthropoda during the Cambrian.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison C Daley
- Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS Oxford, United Kingdom
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History, OX1 3PW Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan B Antcliffe
- Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS Oxford, United Kingdom
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History, OX1 3PW Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Harriet B Drage
- Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS Oxford, United Kingdom
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History, OX1 3PW Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen Pates
- Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS Oxford, United Kingdom
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44
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Gold DA. Life in Changing Fluids: A Critical Appraisal of Swimming Animals Before the Cambrian. Integr Comp Biol 2018; 58:677-687. [DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- David A Gold
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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45
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Parins-Fukuchi C. Use of Continuous Traits Can Improve Morphological Phylogenetics. Syst Biol 2018; 67:328-339. [PMID: 28945906 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syx072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2017] [Accepted: 08/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The recent surge in enthusiasm for simultaneously inferring relationships from extinct and extant species has reinvigorated interest in statistical approaches for modeling morphological evolution. Current statistical methods use the Mk model to describe substitutions between discrete character states. Although representing a significant step forward, the Mk model presents challenges in biological interpretation, and its adequacy in modeling morphological evolution has not been well explored. Another major hurdle in morphological phylogenetics concerns the process of character coding of discrete characters. The often subjective nature of discrete character coding can generate discordant results that are rooted in individual researchers' subjective interpretations. Employing continuous measurements to infer phylogenies may alleviate some of these issues. Although not widely used in the inference of topology, models describing the evolution of continuous characters have been well examined, and their statistical behavior is well understood. Also, continuous measurements avoid the substantial ambiguity often associated with the assignment of discrete characters to states. I present a set of simulations to determine whether use of continuous characters is a feasible alternative or supplement to discrete characters for inferring phylogeny. I compare relative reconstruction accuracy by inferring phylogenies from simulated continuous and discrete characters. These tests demonstrate significant promise for continuous traits by demonstrating their higher overall accuracy as compared to reconstruction from discrete characters under Mk when simulated under unbounded Brownian motion, and equal performance when simulated under an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model. Continuous characters also perform reasonably well in the presence of covariance between sites. I argue that inferring phylogenies directly from continuous traits may be benefit efforts to maximize phylogenetic information in morphological data sets by preserving larger variation in state space compared to many discretization schemes. I also suggest that the use of continuous trait models in phylogenetic reconstruction may alleviate potential concerns of discrete character model adequacy, while identifying areas that require further study in this area. This study provides an initial controlled demonstration of the efficacy of continuous characters in phylogenetic inference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Parins-Fukuchi
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 830 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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46
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Moritz L, Wesener T, Koch M. An apparently non-swinging tentorium in the Diplopoda (Myriapoda): comparative morphology of the tentorial complex in giant pill-millipedes (Sphaerotheriida). Zookeys 2018; 741:77-91. [PMID: 29706773 PMCID: PMC5904393 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.741.21909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2017] [Accepted: 12/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The presence of a swinging tentorium is a key apomorphy of Myriapoda, but this character has been studied in detail in only few species. Here the tentorium, i.e., the peristomatic skeleton of the preoral chamber, is comparatively studied in three species of the millipede order Sphaerotheriida Brandt, 1833. Since dissections of the fragile tentorial components proved to be difficult, despite the large head size, they were analysed mainly in situ via micro-computed tomography. Our results confirm previous observations of large differences in the tentorial construction in the giant pill-millipedes compared to chilognathan diplopods. The tentorium of Sphaerotheriida consists of a curved, plate-like epipharyngeal bar with distal projections, an elongate and thin hypopharyngeal bar, and a plate-like triangular posterior process; a transverse bar is absent. Only seven muscles attach at the tentorium in giant pill-millipedes, including two antennal muscles and two muscles of the gnathochilarium. Within the order Sphaerotheriida, the composition of the tentorium and its muscular equipment seems to be conserved, except for some variability in the shape of the epipharyngeal bar. As the transverse bar has been considered essential for the mobility of the tentorium in myriapods, its absence in Sphaerotheriida may indicate that their tentorium is not capable of performing a swing. Loss of tentorial mobility may also pertain to the order Glomerida Brandt, 1833, inferred here from the absence of a posterior process. An apparently immobile tentorium in Glomerida and Sphaerotheriida can straightforwardly be correlated with transformations of the head related to their ability of volvation. The different transformations of the tentorium, here hypothesised to cause immobility, may support current assumptions that the ability of volvation evolved convergently in Glomerida and Sphaerotheriida. This conclusion, however, still requires more detailed studies of the head anatomy in Glomerida and Glomeridesmida Cook, 1895.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leif Moritz
- Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Section Myriapoda, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Thomas Wesener
- Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, Section Myriapoda, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany
| | - Markus Koch
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, An der Immenburg 1, 53121 Bonn, Germany
- Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Dept. Information Technology and Biodiversity Informatics, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Berv JS, Field DJ. Genomic Signature of an Avian Lilliput Effect across the K-Pg Extinction. Syst Biol 2018; 67:1-13. [PMID: 28973546 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syx064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2017] [Accepted: 07/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Survivorship following major mass extinctions may be associated with a decrease in body size-a phenomenon called the Lilliput Effect. Body size is a strong predictor of many life history traits (LHTs), and is known to influence demography and intrinsic biological processes. Pronounced changes in organismal size throughout Earth history are therefore likely to be associated with concomitant genome-wide changes in evolutionary rates. Here, we report pronounced heterogeneity in rates of molecular evolution (varying up to $\sim$20-fold) across a large-scale avian phylogenomic data set and show that nucleotide substitution rates are strongly correlated with body size and metabolic rate. We also identify potential body size reductions associated with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) transition, consistent with a Lilliput Effect in the wake of that mass extinction event. We posit that selection for reduced body size across the K-Pg extinction horizon may have resulted in transient increases in substitution rate along the deepest branches of the extant avian tree of life. This "hidden" rate acceleration may result in both strict and relaxed molecular clocks over-estimating the age of the avian crown group through the relationship between life history and demographic parameters that scale with molecular substitution rate. If reductions in body size (and/or selection for related demographic parameters like short generation times) are a common property of lineages surviving mass extinctions, this phenomenon may help resolve persistent divergence time debates across the tree of life. Furthermore, our results suggest that selection for certain LHTs may be associated with deterministic molecular evolutionary outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob S Berv
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, 215 Tower Road, Ithaca NY, 14853, USA
| | - Daniel J Field
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.,Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath, Building 4 South, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
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A chelicerate-specific burst of nonclassical Dscam diversity. BMC Genomics 2018; 19:66. [PMID: 29351731 PMCID: PMC5775551 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-017-4420-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2017] [Accepted: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily receptor Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam) gene can generate tens of thousands of isoforms via alternative splicing, which is essential for both nervous and immune systems in insects. However, further information is required to develop a comprehensive view of Dscam diversification across the broad spectrum of Chelicerata clades, a basal branch of arthropods and the second largest group of terrestrial animals. RESULTS In this study, a genome-wide comprehensive analysis of Dscam genes across Chelicerata species revealed a burst of nonclassical Dscams, categorised into four types-mDscam, sDscamα, sDscamβ, and sDscamγ-based on their size and structure. Although the mDscam gene class includes the highest number of Dscam genes, the sDscam genes utilise alternative promoters to expand protein diversity. Furthermore, we indicated that the 5' cassette duplicate is inversely correlated with the sDscam gene duplicate. We showed differential and sDscam- biased expression of nonclassical Dscam isoforms. Thus, the Dscam isoform repertoire across Chelicerata is entirely dominated by the number and expression levels of nonclassical Dscams. Taken together, these data show that Chelicerata evolved a large conserved and lineage-specific repertoire of nonclassical Dscams. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that arthropods have a large diversified Chelicerata-specific repertoire of nonclassical Dscam isoforms, which are structurally and mechanistically distinct from those of insects. These findings provide a global framework for the evolution of Dscam diversity in arthropods and offer mechanistic insights into the diversification of the clade-specific Ig superfamily repertoire.
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49
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Yang D, Guo X, Xie T, Luo X. Reactive oxygen species may play an essential role in driving biological evolution: The Cambrian Explosion as an example. J Environ Sci (China) 2018; 63:218-226. [PMID: 29406104 DOI: 10.1016/j.jes.2017.05.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2017] [Accepted: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The Cambrian Explosion is one of the most significant events in the history of life; essentially all easily fossilizable animal body plans first evolved during this event. Although many theories have been proposed to explain this event, its cause remains unresolved. Here, we propose that the elevated level of oxygen, in combination with the increased mobility and food intake of metazoans, led to increased cellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which drove evolution by enhancing mutation rates and providing new regulatory mechanisms. Our hypothesis may provide a unified explanation for the Cambrian Explosion as it incorporates both environmental and developmental factors and is also consistent with ecological explanations for animal radiation. Future studies should focus on testing this hypothesis, and may lead to important insights into evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dong Yang
- Gene Engineering and Biotechnology Beijing Key Laboratory College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Xuejun Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Tian Xie
- State Key Laboratory of Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Xiaoyan Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
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Aria C, Caron JB. Mandibulate convergence in an armoured Cambrian stem chelicerate. BMC Evol Biol 2017; 17:261. [PMID: 29262772 PMCID: PMC5738823 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-017-1088-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chelicerata represents a vast clade of mostly predatory arthropods united by a distinctive body plan throughout the Phanerozoic. Their origins, however, with respect to both their ancestral morphological features and their related ecologies, are still poorly understood. In particular, it remains unclear whether their major diagnostic characters were acquired early on, and their anatomical organization rapidly constrained, or if they emerged from a stem lineage encompassing an array of structural variations, based on a more labile "panchelicerate" body plan. RESULTS In this study, we reinvestigated the problematic middle Cambrian arthropod Habelia optata Walcott from the Burgess Shale, and found that it was a close relative of Sanctacaris uncata Briggs and Collins (in Habeliida, ord. nov.), both retrieved in our Bayesian phylogeny as stem chelicerates. Habelia possesses an exoskeleton covered in numerous spines and a bipartite telson as long as the rest of the body. Segments are arranged into three tagmata. The prosoma includes a reduced appendage possibly precursor to the chelicera, raptorial endopods connected to five pairs of outstandingly large and overlapping gnathobasic basipods, antennule-like exopods seemingly dissociated from the main limb axis, and, posteriorly, a pair of appendages morphologically similar to thoracic ones. While the head configuration of habeliidans anchors a seven-segmented prosoma as the chelicerate ground pattern, the peculiar size and arrangement of gnathobases and the presence of sensory/tactile appendages also point to an early convergence with the masticatory head of mandibulates. CONCLUSIONS Although habeliidans illustrate the early appearance of some diagnostic chelicerate features in the evolution of euarthropods, the unique convergence of their cephalons with mandibulate anatomies suggests that these traits retained an unusual variability in these taxa. The common involvement of strong gnathal appendages across non-megacheirans Cambrian taxa also illustrates that the specialization of the head as the dedicated food-processing tagma was critical to the emergence of both lineages of extant euarthropods-Chelicerata and Mandibulata-and implies that this diversification was facilitated by the expansion of durophagous niches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cédric Aria
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S3B2, Canada.
- Present address: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China.
| | - Jean-Bernard Caron
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S3B2, Canada
- Department of Natural History (Palaeobiology Section), Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, M5S2C6, Canada
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S3B1, Canada
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