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MBE Advance Access originally published online on May 4, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(8):1690-1701; doi:10.1093/molbev/msm086
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Articles

Mitochondrial Genome and Nuclear Sequence Data Support Myzostomida As Part of the Annelid Radiation

Christoph Bleidorn*, Igor Eeckhaut{dagger}, Lars Podsiadlowski{ddagger}, Nancy Schult§, Damhnait McHugh§, Kenneth M. Halanych||, Michel C. Milinkovitch and Ralph Tiedemann*

* Unit of Evolutionary Biology/Systematic Zoology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam-Golm, Germany
{dagger} Marine Biology Laboratory, University of Mons-Hainaut, Av. Champs de Mars 6, B-7000 Mons, Belgium
{ddagger} Animal Systematics and Evolution, Institute for Biology, Zoology, Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
§ Department of Biology, Colgate University
|| Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University
Free University of Brussels, Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine, Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Gosselies, Belgium

E-mail: Bleidorn{at}uni-potsdam.de.

Accepted for publication April 25, 2007.

The echinoderm symbionts Myzostomida are marine worms that show an enigmatic lophotrochozoan body plan. Historically, their phylogenetic origins were obscured due to disagreement about which morphological features are evolutionarily conserved, but now most morphological evidence points to annelid origins. In contrast, recent phylogenetic analyses using different molecular markers produced variable results regarding the position of myzostomids, but all suggested these worms are not derived annelids. To reexamine this issue, we analyzed data from nuclear genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Myosin II, and Elongation Factor-1{alpha}), and a nearly complete myzostomid mitochondrial genome. Here, we show that the molecular data are in agreement with the morphological evidence that myzostomids are part of the annelid radiation. This result is robustly supported by mitochondrial (gene order and sequence data) and nuclear data, as well as by recent ultrastructural investigations. Using Bayes factor comparison, alternative hypotheses are shown to lack support. Thus, myzostomids probably evolved from a segmented ancestor and gained a derived anatomy during their long evolutionary history as echinoderm symbionts.

Key Words: Myzostomida • Annelida • Myosin II • mitochondrial genome • gene order • long branch attraction

Billie Swalla, Associate Editor


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