The search for new molecular markers to infer metazoan phylogeny

Traditional hypoteses for metazoan phylogeny have been based on morphological and developmental characters as well as on life history data. However since the late 1980's molecular data have been used challenging some of the traditional views. The first molecular marker used to infer metazoan phylogeny was the rRNA 18S gene (SSU), and some others have been used to test the initial hypotheses, with the result of reaching certain consensus, although some clades proposed by molecular phylogenies remain controversial.

Major clades have been proposed by molecular phylogenies and are being acepted by a large portion of the scientific community, but relationships within some clades still remain unclear. We are searching for new genes (nuclear, single-copy, slow evolving) suitable for metazoan phylogeny inference. Once we find a gene that meets our requirements we sequence it for a large number of taxa to run phylogenetic analyses. We focus in invertebrate taxa that are under-represented in existing databases (e.g. Sipuncula, Phoronida, Annelida, Echinodermata, some representatives of Mollusca and Arthropoda, etc.). Sequences from other organisms are available in public databases (e.g. Chordata, Drosophila, or Caenorhabditis elegans).

What is a metazoan? - Metazoans in the Tree of Life - Metazoa in the Biodiversity Explorer

Various links

Talks and publications

Work experience

From left to right: Mike Venarsky, Dr. Frank Anderson, Alonso Córdoba, Stephanie Clutts, and Adria Pilsits. In front of the Life Sciences II building at SIU. Photo: Guillermo Amico

E-mail: ajcg-at-siu.edu

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