MBE Advance Access published online on October 13, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm223
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Research Article |
The complete Mitochondrial Genome of the Onychophoran Epiperipatus biolleyi Reveals a Unique Transfer RNA Set and Provides Further Support for the Ecdysozoa Hypothesis
1 Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
2 Institute of Biology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Phillipstr. 13, D-10115 Berlin, Germany
3 Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
* Corresponding author: Lars Podsiadlowski, Institut of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, D-14195 Berlin, Germany, email: lars{at}podsiadlowski.de
Received for publication June 15, 2007. Revision received September 28, 2007. Accepted for publication October 8, 2007.
Onychophora ("velvet worms") play a crucial role in current discussions on position of arthropods. The ongoing Articulata/Ecdysozoa debate is in need of additional ground pattern characters for Panarthropoda (Arthropoda, Tardigrada and Onychophora). Hence, Onychophora is an important outgroup taxon in resolving the relationships among arthropods, irrespective of whether morphological or molecular data are used. To date, there has been a noticeable lack of mitochondrial genome data from onychophorans. Here we present the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence of an onychophoran, Epiperipatus biolleyi (Peripatidae), which shows several characteristic features. Specifically, the gene order is considerably different from that in other arthropods and other bilaterians. In addition, there is a lack of 9 tRNA genes usually present in bilaterian mitochondrial genomes. All of these missing tRNAs have anticodon sequences corresponding to fourfold degenerate codons, while the persisting 13 tRNAs all have anticodons pairing with twofold degenerate codons. Sequence based phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial protein-coding genes provides a robust support for a clade consisting of Onychophora, Priapulida and Arthropoda, which confirms the Ecdysozoa hypothesis. However, resolution of the internal ecdysozoan relationships suffers from a cluster of long-branching taxa (including Nematoda and Platyhelminthes) and a lack of data from Tardigrada and further nemathelminth taxa in addition to nematodes and priapulids.
Key Words: Onychophora • mitochondrial genome • mitochondrial gene order • tRNA import • Arthropoda
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  G. Mayer and P. M. Whitington Velvet worm development links myriapods with chelicerates Proc R Soc B, October 22, 2009; 276(1673): 3571 - 3579. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. M. Rand 'Why genomes in pieces?' revisited: Sucking lice do their own thing in mtDNA circle game Genome Res., May 1, 2009; 19(5): 700 - 702. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. C. Regier, J. W. Shultz, A. R. D. Ganley, A. Hussey, D. Shi, B. Ball, A. Zwick, J. E. Stajich, M. P. Cummings, J. W. Martin, et al. Resolving Arthropod Phylogeny: Exploring Phylogenetic Signal within 41 kb of Protein-Coding Nuclear Gene Sequence Syst Biol, December 1, 2008; 57(6): 920 - 938. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|