On the phylogenetic position of Myzostomida : can 77 genes get it wrong?

  • Background: Phylogenomic analyses recently became popular to address questions about deep metazoan phylogeny. Ribosomal proteins (RP) dominate many of these analyses or are, in some cases, the only genes included. Despite initial hopes, hylogenomic analyses including tens to hundreds of genes still fail to robustly place many bilaterian taxa. Results: Using the phylogenetic position of myzostomids as an example, we show that phylogenies derived from RP genes and mitochondrial genes produce incongruent results. Whereas the former support a position within a clade of platyzoan taxa, mitochondrial data recovers an annelid affinity, which is strongly supported by the gene order data and is congruent with morphology. Using hypothesis testing, our RP data significantly rejects the annelids affinity, whereas a platyzoan relationship is significantly rejected by the mitochondrial data. Conclusion: We conclude (i) that reliance of a set of markers belonging to a single class of macromolecular complexes might bias the analysis, and (ii) thatBackground: Phylogenomic analyses recently became popular to address questions about deep metazoan phylogeny. Ribosomal proteins (RP) dominate many of these analyses or are, in some cases, the only genes included. Despite initial hopes, hylogenomic analyses including tens to hundreds of genes still fail to robustly place many bilaterian taxa. Results: Using the phylogenetic position of myzostomids as an example, we show that phylogenies derived from RP genes and mitochondrial genes produce incongruent results. Whereas the former support a position within a clade of platyzoan taxa, mitochondrial data recovers an annelid affinity, which is strongly supported by the gene order data and is congruent with morphology. Using hypothesis testing, our RP data significantly rejects the annelids affinity, whereas a platyzoan relationship is significantly rejected by the mitochondrial data. Conclusion: We conclude (i) that reliance of a set of markers belonging to a single class of macromolecular complexes might bias the analysis, and (ii) that concatenation of all available data might introduce conflicting signal into phylogenetic analyses. We therefore strongly recommend testing for data incongruence in phylogenomic analyses. Furthermore, judging all available data, we consider the annelid affinity hypothesis more plausible than a possible platyzoan affinity for myzostomids, and suspect long branch attraction is influencing the RP data. However, this hypothesis needs further confirmation by future analyses.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Christoph BleidornORCiDGND, Lars Podsiadlowski, Min Zhong, Igor Eeckhaut, Stefanie HartmannORCiDGND, Kenneth M. Halanych, Ralph TiedemannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-44893
Publication series (Volume number):Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe (paper 123)
Publication type:Postprint
Language:English
Publication year:2009
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2010/07/16
Tag:Cirriferum myzostomida; Data sets; Mitochondrial genomes; Sequence; Transfer-rna
Source:BMC Evolutionary Biology 9 (2009), Art. 150, DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-9-150
Organizational units:Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie
DDC classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
License (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 2.0 Deutschland
External remark:
The article was originally published at BioMed Central:
BMC Evolutionary biology. - 9 (2009), Art. 150 (11 S.)
ISSN 1471-2148
DOI 10.1186/1471-2148-9-150
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