Molecular evaluation of the phylogenetic position of the enigmatic species Trivettea papalotla (Bertsch) (Mollusca : Nudibranchia)
Ryan E. Hulett A , Jermaine Mahguib B , Terrence M. Gosliner A and Ángel Valdés B CA Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
B Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic University, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA.
C Corresponding author. Email: aavaldes@cpp.edu
Invertebrate Systematics 29(3) 215-222 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS15002
Submitted: 25 July 2014 Accepted: 19 March 2015 Published: 30 June 2015
Abstract
Tritoniid sea slugs are specialised predators that feed on a variety of octocorals, including soft corals, gorgonians and sea pens. Trivettea papalotla is a recently described species found in Baja California and mainland Mexico that is unusual in its morphology and feeding behaviour. It is the first tritoniid nudibranch known to feed on zoanthid anthozoans, specifically on an undescribed species of the genus Epizoanthus. Trivettea papalotla also has retractable respiratory structures, prominent dorsal vessels and several other traits not found in any other species of the Tritoniidae. In its original description these unique features of T. papalotla were considered autapomorphies, and the species was tentatively placed within Tritonia based on a morphological phylogenetic analysis. Subsequently, the monotypic genus Trivettea was erected for T. papalotla based on unpublished molecular data. In the present study, the phylogenetic placement of Trivettea is investigated based on molecular data. These phylogenies show T. papalotla is not nested within Tritonia or Tritoniidae and instead appears to be a basal, distinct cladobranch. However, the analyses conducted resulted in poorly resolved basal relationships, suggesting additional markers are probably necessary to fully resolve the phylogeny for the Cladobranchia.
References
Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identifications. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 19, 716–723.| A new look at the statistical model identifications.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Alfaro, M. E., Zoller, S., and Lutzoni, F. (2003). Bayes or bootstrap? A simulation study comparing the performance of Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and bootstrapping in assessing phylogenetic confidence. Molecular Biology and Evolution 20, 255–266.
| Bayes or bootstrap? A simulation study comparing the performance of Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and bootstrapping in assessing phylogenetic confidence.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3sXhsVOiuro%3D&md5=44f6c144eaad08f6c82b9c80595eb308CAS | 12598693PubMed |
Ballesteros, M., and Avila, C. (2006). A new tritoniid species (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) from Bouvet Island. Polar Biology 29, 128–136.
| A new tritoniid species (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) from Bouvet Island.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bertsch, H. (2014). Biodiversity in La Reserva de la Biósfera Bahía de los Ángeles y Canales de Ballenas y Salsipuedes: naming of a new genus, range extensions and new records, and species list of Heterobranchia (Mollusca: Gastropoda), with comments on biodiversity conservation within marine reserves. The Festivus 46, 158–175.
Bertsch, H., Valdés, A., and Gosliner, T. M. (2009). A new species of tritoniid nudibranch, the first found feeding on a zoanthid anthozoan, with a preliminary phylogeny of the Tritoniidae. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 60, 431–446.
Colgan, D. J., McLauchlan, A., Wilson, G. D. F., Livingston, S. P., Edgecombe, G. D., Macaranas, J., Cassis, G., and Gray, M. R. (1998). Histone H3 and U2 snRNA DNA sequences and arthropod molecular evolution. Australian Journal of Zoology 46, 419–437.
| Histone H3 and U2 snRNA DNA sequences and arthropod molecular evolution.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh, W., Lutz, R., and Vrijenhoek, R. (1994). DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology 3, 294–299.
| 1:CAS:528:DyaK2MXjt12gtLs%3D&md5=c84f72a2d796a7fee91c4e2e01175599CAS | 7881515PubMed |
Gosliner, T. M., and Ghiselin, M. T. (1987). A new species of Tritonia from the Caribbean Sea. Bulletin of Marine Science 40, 428–436.
Hillis, D. M., and Bull, J. J. (1993). An empirical test of bootstrapping as a method for assessing confidence in phylogenetic analysis. Systematic Biology 42, 182–192.
| An empirical test of bootstrapping as a method for assessing confidence in phylogenetic analysis.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Katz, P. S. (1998). Neuromodulation intrinsic to the central pattern generator for escape swimming in Tritonia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 860, 181–188.
| Neuromodulation intrinsic to the central pattern generator for escape swimming in Tritonia.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:STN:280:DyaK1M7islaksA%3D%3D&md5=20708eb9ab4fd457f9593fa8a6359d08CAS | 9928311PubMed |
McDonald, G., and Nybakken, J. (1999). A worldwide review of the food of nudibranch mollusks. Part II. The suborder Dendronotacea. The Veliger 42, 62–66.
Nylander, J. A. A. (2004). ‘MrModeltest v2.’ Available at https://www.abc.se/~nylander/mrmodeltest2/mrmodeltest2.html [Verified June 2013].
Odhner, N. H. (1963). On the taxonomy of the family Tritoniidae. The Veliger 6, 48–52.
Palumbi, S. R. (1996). Nucleic acids II: the polymerase chain reaction. In ‘Molecular Systematics’. (Eds D. M. Hillis, C. Moritz and B. K. Mable.) pp 205–247. (Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, Massachussetts.)
Platnick, N. I. (1976). Are montypic genera possible? Systematic Zoology 25, 198–199.
| Are montypic genera possible?Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Pola, M., and Gosliner, T. M. (2010). The first molecular phylogeny of cladobranchian opisthobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56, 931–941.
| The first molecular phylogeny of cladobranchian opisthobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia).Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BC3cXos1CjsLo%3D&md5=92be3570c57192489fdd0d10ebf1c773CAS | 20460158PubMed |
Rambaut, A., and Drummond, A. J. (2007). ‘Tracer v1.5.’ Available at http://beast.bio.ed.ac.uk/Tracer.
Ronquist, F., Teslenko, M., van der Mark, P., Ayres, D. L., Darling, A., Höhna, S., Larget, B., Liu, L., Suchard, M. A., and Huelsenbeck, J. P. (2012). MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic Biology 61, 539–542.
| 22357727PubMed |
Scotland, R. W., and Sanderson, M. J. (2004). The significance of few versus many in the tree of life. Science 303, 643.
| The significance of few versus many in the tree of life.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BD2cXps1CktQ%3D%3D&md5=1e39359bf765617d82f81072cc2c0354CAS | 14752153PubMed |
Smith, V. G., and Gosliner, T. M. (2003). A new species of Tritonia from Okinawa (Mollusca: Nudibranchia), and its association with a gorgonian octocoral. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 54, 255–278.
Wiley, E. O. (1977). Are montypic genera paraphyletic? A response to Norman Platnick. Systematic Zoology 26, 352–355.
| Are montypic genera paraphyletic? A response to Norman Platnick.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Willows, A. O. D., and Hoyle, G. (1967). Correlation of behavior with the activity of single identifiable neurons in the brain of Tritonia. In ‘Neurobiology of Invertebrates’. (Ed. J. Salánki.) pp. 443–461. (Akadémiai Kiadó: Budapest.)
Xia, X., and Lemey, P. (2009). Assessing substitution saturation with DAMBE. In ‘The Phylogenetic Handbook: a Practical Approach to DNA and Protein Phylogeny, 2nd Edn’. (Eds P. Lemey, M. Salemi and A. M. VanDamme.) pp. 615–630. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.)
Xia, X., and Xie, Z. (2001). DAMBE: data analysis in molecular biology and evolution. The Journal of Heredity 92, 371–373.
| DAMBE: data analysis in molecular biology and evolution.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:STN:280:DC%2BD3MvptlagtA%3D%3D&md5=bebc9ecc43e1e64e767bfc28ca7a3f3bCAS | 11535656PubMed |
Xia, X., Xie, Z., Salemi, M., Chen, L., and Wang, Y. (2003). An index of substitution saturation and its application. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 26, 1–7.
| An index of substitution saturation and its application.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BD38Xps1WhtrY%3D&md5=516db0b5c930891faa088dcc6651d0e6CAS | 12470932PubMed |
Zwickl, D. J. (2006). Genetic algorithm approaches for the phylogenetic analysis of large biological sequence datasets under the maximum likelihood criterion. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.
