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MBE Advance Access published online on December 12, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn283
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© The Author 2008. 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 Article

Explosive speciation of Takifugu: another use of fugu as a model system for evolutionary biology

Yusuke Yamanouea,*, Masaki Miyab, Keiichi Matsuurac, Seita Miyazawad, Naofumi Tsukamotod, Hiroyuki Doie, Hiroshi Takahashif, Kohji Mabuchig, Mutsumi Nishidag and Harumi Sakaih

a Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8675, Japan
b Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, 955-2 Aoba-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8682, Japan
c Department of Zoology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 3-23-1 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan
d Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
e Shimonoseki Marine Science Museum "Kaikyokan", Shimonoseki Academy of Marine Science, 6-1 Arcaport, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 750-0036, Japan
f Department of Applied Aquabiology, National Fisheries University, 2-7-1 Nagata-Honmachi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 759-6595, Japan
g Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minamidai, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan
h Graduate School of Fisheries Science, National Fisheries University, 2-7-1 Nagata-Honmachi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 759-6595, Japan

* Corresponding author: Tel: +81-3-5841-8119; Fax: +81-3-5841-8165; E-mail: ayyamano{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Y. Yamanoue)

Received for publication September 15, 2008. Revision received December 8, 2008. Accepted for publication December 8, 2008.

Although the fugu Takifugu rubripes has attracted attention as a model organism for genomic studies because of its compact genome, it is not generally appreciated that there are approximately 25 closely related species with limited distributions in the waters of East Asia. We performed molecular phylogenetic analyses and constructed a timetree using whole mitochondrial genome sequences from 15 Takifugu species together with 10 outgroups to examine patterns of diversification. The resultant timetree showed that the modern Takifugu species underwent explosive speciation during the Pliocene 1.8–5.3 MYA, which is comparable to that of the Malawi cichlids and tropheine cichlids in the Lake Tanganyika. Considering their limited distributions and remarkable variations in coloration, morphology, and behavior, the results of the present study strongly suggest that Takifugu species are strong candidates as a model system for evolutionary studies of speciation mechanisms in marine environments where few such organisms are available.

Key Words: model organism • model system • partitioned ML analysis • Tetraodontidae • Tetraodontiformes • whole mitochondrial genome


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