Evolution through cold and deep waters: the molecular phylogeny of the Lithodidae (Crustacea: Decapoda)

Abstract

The objectives of this work are to use gene sequence data to assess the hypothesis that the Lithodinae arose from ancestors with uncalcified abdomens in shallow waters of the North-East Pacific, investigate the monophyly and interrelationships of genera within the Lithodinae and to estimate the scale and minimum number of biogeographic transitions from the shallow environment to the deep sea and vice versa. To do this, phylogenetic analysis from three mitochondrial and three nuclear markers was conducted using minimum evolution, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. The Lithodinae as defined to include North Pacific genus Cryptolithodes may be paraphyletic, with the Hapalogastrinae and Cryptolithodes as sister taxa. This implies that the soft-bodied abdomen of the Hapalogastrinae might not be plesiomorphic for the Lithodidae. Paralomis, Lopholithodes, Phyllolithodes, Lithodes and Neolithodes share a common ancestor, from which the North Pacific Hapalogastrinae did not descend. Lithodid ancestors are likely to have had a north Pacific, shallow water distribution and to have had planktotrophic larvae. North Pacific genus Paralithodes is paraphyletic; P. brevipes is the most basal member of the genus (as sampled) while P. camtschaticus and P. platypus are more closely related to the genera Lithodes and Neolithodes. Genera Lithodes, Neolithodes and Paralomis (as sampled) are monophyletic if Glyptolithodes is included within Paralomis. Lopholithodes is closely related to, but not included within, the Paralomis genus. Paralomis is divided into at least two major lineages: one containing South Atlantic, West African, and Indian Ocean species, and the other containing Pacific and South American species. Several species of Paralomis do not resolve consistently with any other groups sampled, implying a complex and possibly rapid global evolution early in the history of the genus. Relationships within the Lithodes genus vary between analytical methods, suggesting that conclusions may not be stable. Consistently, however, Indian Ocean and Pacific forms—L. murrayi, L. longispina and L. nintokuae form a group separated from Atlantic species such as L. santolla, L. confundens, L. maja and L. ferox.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00114-018-1544-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Variation of length and sequence of the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer 1 supports “hermit-to-king” crab hypothesis

“…ITS1 sequences of all nine individuals of seven lithodoid species were S-type, ranging from 217 to 253 bp, and a BLAST search indicated these sequences to be homologous to ITS1s of lithodoid species in the database. Moreover, S-type ITS1 may be unique to the superfamily Lithodoidea, since all 53 ITS1 sequences of 19 king crab species of the family Lithodidae reported to date (HM020983-HM021023, AB194389-AB194394, AB211306, AB236928, AB426492-AB426495) (also see Chow et al 2009; Hall and Thatje 2018) were also short (215–219 bp). Of the 26 nucleotide sequences obtained from 13 paguroid species examined in the present study, four ITS1s (LC706617‒ LC706620, 155–262 bp) were determined to belong to fungi or jellyfish ( Anemonia erythraea ) and were not included in the subsequent analysis as they were considered cross-contamination.…”

“…Richter and Scholtz (1994) and Scholtz (2014) presented the morphological characteristics of a hermit crab ancestry of lithodids, whereas McLaughlin and Lemaitre (1997), McLaughlin et al (2004, 2007), and Lemaitre and McLaughlin (2009) developed theories against this hypothesis. Starting with Zaklin (2001), all subsequent studies using molecular genetic analyses have strongly supported the “hermit-to-king” crab hypothesis (Morrison et al 2002; Ahyong and O’Meally 2004; Ahyong et al 2009; Hall and Thatje 2009, 2018; Schnabel et al 2011; Tsang et al 2008; 2011; Bracken-Grissom et al 2013; Noever and Glenner 2018; Tan et al 2018, 2019). However, there is no consensus whether lithodids are nested within the genus Pagurus .…”

Assessing diversity of King Crab Lithodes spp. in the south‐eastern pacific using phylogeny and molecular species delimitation methods

“…The primers defined by Chu et al ( 2001 ) were used for the ITS‐1. These genetic markers were selected as they have been previously used for delimitating Lithodes species (e.g., Hall & Thatje, 2018 ; Noever & Glenner, 2018 ) and for their availability in public database GENBANK. The primers to amplify the gene 28S were designed in the Geneious version 11.1.5 (Kearse et al, 2012 ) based on sequences of the 28S gene from Lithodes individuals available in the public database GenBank (KF182602, HM020859, HM020861, HM020855, FJ462642, AY596100) (Benson et al, 2014 ) (for more information about primers, see TableS1.1 ).…”

Variation of length and sequence of the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer 1 supports “hermit-to-king” crab hypothesis

“…ITS1 sequences of all nine individuals of seven lithodoid species were S-type, ranging from 217 to 253 bp, and a BLAST search indicated these sequences to be homologous to ITS1s of lithodoid species in the database. Moreover, S-type ITS1 may be unique to the superfamily Lithodoidea, since all 53 ITS1 sequences of 19 king crab species of the family Lithodidae reported to date (HM020983-HM021023, AB194389-AB194394, AB211306, AB236928, AB426492-AB426495) (also see Chow et al, 2009;Hall & Thatje, 2018) were also short (215-219 bp).…”