Phylogeny of the order Corallimorpharia (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) Harim Cha Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Natural History Museum & Biodiversity.

Phylogeny of the order Corallimorpharia(Cnidaria: Hexacorallia)

Harim Cha

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research CenterThe University of Kansas [email protected]

Corallimorpharia

One of six orders of Hexacorallia

Coral-like sea anemones

Solitary or clonal polyps without skeleton

Current Classification four families, 12 genera, and 50 species

Widely distributed from tropical to polar areas and from shallow to deep water Vincent B. Hargreaves

Adorian Ardelean

George Miller

Corallimorpharia

Cylindrical body (CO I)

Family Sideractiidae

Family Corallimorphidae

Plate-like body (CO II)

Family Ricordeidae

Family Discosomatidae

Questions about relationships within the order

Vincent B. Hargreaves

Vincent B. Hargreaves

Questions about relationship between Corallimorpharia and orders Actiniaria (sea anemones) and Scleractinia (stony corals)

Corallimorpharia

SC CO AC

SC CO AC SC CO CO AC

Hypothesis 1

Hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 4

SC CO ACHypothesis 2

b. Chen et al. (1995): 28S rRNA

d. Daly et al. (2003): Morphology, 16S, 18S, 28S c. France et al. (1996): 16S rRNA

a. Fautin & Lowenstein (1994): radioimmunoassay

Phylogenetic hypothesis based on molecular data

e. Medina et al. (2006): mtDNA

Phylogenetic analysis using morphological characters

Major characters used for analysis:• Calcareous exoskeleton• Polyp shape / size• Tentacle shape / number / arrangement• Nature of mesenteries and mesenterial arrangement• Muscle development• Nematocyst composition• Life style – solitary or clonal• Habitat • Zooxanthellae

Methods:• 32 morphological characters • 12 genera of Corallimorpharia, 6 genera of Scleractinia, and 11 genera of Actiniaria • Outgroup: genus Cerianthus• Maximum parsimony criterion, 1000 bootstrap replicates

Maximum Parsimony analysis(CI = 0.58, RI = 0.69)

• Strict consensus tree of 12 equally parsimonious trees• Number of parsimony informative characters = 30

Corallimorpharia(CO)

Scleractinia(SC)

Actiniaria (AC)

Ceriantharia (CE)

CO I

CO I

CO II

Genes sequenced: 16S mtDNA (1233 bp), 28S rDNA (345 bp), 18S rDNA (1836 bp)

Taxon sampling:Corallimorpharia - more than one genus of each family except family Sideractidae - collected from Oman and Caribbean- borrowed from the Field MuseumScleractinia - Robust and Complex groups Actiniaria - at least one taxon of each tribe

Outgroup: Genus Cerianthus

MacClade 4.0 and PAUP 3.3.1

Maximum likelihood

Maximum parsimony – 2000 bootstrap replicates

Phylogenetic analysis using molecular characters

Results

16S mtDNA RobustScleractinia(RS)

ComplexScleractinia(CS)

Corallimorpharia(CO)

Actiniaria(AC)

Ceriantharia (CE)

ComplexScleractinia (CS)

RobustScleractinia (RS)

Actiniaria (AC)

Ceriantharia (CE)

Corallimorpharia(CO)

Maximum Likelihood

Maximum Parsimony analysis

• Strict consensus of 9 equally parsimonious trees• Number of parsimony-informative characters: 498

CO II

CO I

28S rDNA maximum likelihood analysis

18S rDNA maximum likelihood analysis

CO

CS

AC

CE

RS

CO II

CO I

CE

CO

AC

Scleractinia

CO II

CO I

Summary of results

Phylogeny based on morphological characters1) Plate-like corallimorpharians are more closely related to deep-sea cylindrical

corallimorpharians (genera Corallimorphus, Sideractis, Nectactis, and Sphincteractis)

than to shallow-water ones.

2) Corallimorpharia is a monophyletic group

3) Corallimorpharia is a sister taxon of Scleractinia

Each gene gives a different signal on phylogenetic relationships of

Corallimorpharia1) 16S mtDNA:

Corallimorpharia is monophyletic and a sister taxon of the Complex group of

Scleractinia

2) 28S rDNA:

Corallimorpharia is monophyletic and a sister taxon of Scleractinia

3) 18S rDNA:

Corallimorpharia is within Scleractinia

Further study

Better molecular markers are required to resolve higher level

phylogeny of Hexacorallia

Extensive morphological data including polyp anatomy of

scleractinians may help to clarify the position of

corallimorpharians

Data from deep-sea corallimorpharians (family Sideractidae) will

complete sampling of corallimorpharians and may be able to

provide new insights on corallimorpharian phylogeny

Acknowledgments

Dr. Daphne Fautin and all lab people Dr. Adorian Ardelean (WHOI) Dr. Paulyn Cartwright (KU) Dr. Rachel Collin (STRI) Dr. Meg Daly (OSU) Mr. Matthew Kost (KU) Ms. Abby Reft Dr. Sandra Romano (UVI)

NSF grant 9978106 in the program Partnerships to Enhance Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET) to Dr. Daphne Fautin

KU Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, KU