Dataset Information

Unexplored character diversity in onychophora (velvet worms): A comparative study of three peripatid species.

ABSTRACT: Low character variation among onychophoran species has been an obstacle for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies in the past, however we have identified a number of new and informative characters using morphological, molecular, and chromosomal techniques. Our analyses involved a detailed examination of Epiperipatus biolleyi from Costa Rica, Eoperipatus sp. from Thailand, and a new onychophoran species and genus from Costa Rica, Principapillatus hitoyensisgen. et sp. nov.. Scanning electron microscopy on embryos and specimens of varying age revealed novel morphological characters and character states, including the distribution of different receptor types along the antennae, the arrangement and form of papillae on the head, body and legs, the presence and shape of interpedal structures and fields of modified scales on the ventral body surface, the arrangement of lips around the mouth, the number, position and structure of crural tubercles and anal gland openings, and the presence and shape of embryonic foot projections. Karyotypic analyses revealed differences in the number and size of chromosomes among the species studied. The results of our phylogenetic analyses using mitochondrial COI and 12S rRNA gene sequences are in line with morphological and karyotype data. However, our data show a large number of unexplored, albeit informative, characters in the Peripatidae. We suggest that analysing these characters in additional species would help unravel species diversity and phylogeny in the Onychophora, and that inconsistencies among most diagnostic features used for the peripatid genera in the literature could be addressed by identifying a suite of characters common to all peripatids.

SUBMITTER: Oliveira Ide S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3524137 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Unexplored character diversity in onychophora (velvet worms): A comparative study of three peripatid species.

Oliveira Ivo de Sena Ide S Franke Franziska Anni FA Hering Lars L Schaffer Stefan S Rowell David M DM Weck-Heimann Andreas A Monge-Nájera Julián J Morera-Brenes Bernal B Mayer Georg G

PloS one 20121217 12

Low character variation among onychophoran species has been an obstacle for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies in the past, however we have identified a number of new and informative characters using morphological, molecular, and chromosomal techniques. Our analyses involved a detailed examination of Epiperipatus biolleyi from Costa Rica, Eoperipatus sp. from Thailand, and a new onychophoran species and genus from Costa Rica, Principapillatus hitoyensisgen. et sp. nov.. Scanning electron microsc ...[more]

PMID: 23284667

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Project description:Haemophilus influenzae(Hi) is a gram-negative rod shaped bacterium that lives symbiotically in the upper respiratory tract of humans. Capsulated Hi, as well as non-capsulated strains are known to cause a number of significant infections. Recognizing and understanding the links between the phenotypic traits and the genetic background has paramount epidemiological and clinical importance. To date, a panoply of microbiological and molecular biology tools have been developed and utilized by researchers aimed at identifying the evolutionary links among strains and isolates. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) has been shown to be a useful tool for screening strains for their genetic content. However, there is a major limitation when CGH is conducted on a microarray based on a single reference genome. CGH results report which genes are present or absent relative to the genome. Hence the information about novel genetic content that the query strain possesses remains obscure. We report here the construction of the first Hi pan-genome microarray representing ca. 4600 features by 70-mers. In addition to those from the Rd strain, new features originate from the unfinished genome sequences present in NCBI database and from our novel gene discovery project efforts using strain HK1212. Genomes of 20strains belonging to different phylogenetic lineages were screened for their gene loss and gain utilizing the species microarray. The results obtained by employing the multistrain species microarray provide comprehensive information about the genomic content of uncharacterized strains. The trees generated by CGH, in general, do not reproduce the phylogeny of a species in terms of vertical evolution, but instead represents the overall relatedness of genomes to one another and provide an assessment about the species genome evolution. Keywords: Comparative Genomic Hybridization Twenty query strains (denoted HKxxxx) were investigated in this study, with each query strain hybridized against the reference strain, KW20. Two dye-swap experiments were performed, for a total of four hybridizations per query strain. Each 70mer oligo spotted on the H. influenzae species microarray is replicated six times. Positive controls on the array consist of oligos designed from the sequenced reference genome, KW20, and negative controls on the array consist of oligos designed from the thale cress plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.

Dataset Information

Unexplored character diversity in onychophora (velvet worms): A comparative study of three peripatid species.

Publications

Unexplored character diversity in onychophora (velvet worms): A comparative study of three peripatid species.

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