Sympatric sibling species: the case of &lt;em&gt;Caloria elegans&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Facelina quatrefagesi&lt;/em&gt; (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia)

Furfaro, Giulia; Mariottini, Paolo; Modica, Maria Vittoria; Trainito, Egidio; Doneddu, Mauro; Oliverio, Marco

doi:10.3989/scimar.04479.09a

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…As expected, the V domain showed a high conservation of the primary sequence and global folding when compared among the species analysed (Table 1), which conforms to the canonical molluscan architecture [18,24,25,29,30,53]. Among the variable stem-loops, the L7 was the most divergent rRNA sequence containing diagnostic nucleotides and it was taken into consideration as an RNA barcoding region [18,29]. In Figure 2, the folding models of the 16S rRNA V domain are displayed of eight representative species belonging to seven genera.…”

Section: S Rna Primary and Secondary Structures Analysissupporting

confidence: 80%

“…In the mitochondrial 16S rRNA molecule, the V domain includes the L7-L13 stem-loops [ 30 , 53 ] that can be used to search for diagnostic nucleotides [ 54 ]. The 2D structure analysis using the 16S rRNA in molluscs has revealed to be capable to discriminate a couple of sympatric sibling sea slugs [ 18 , 29 ]. In particular, the stem-loop L9 nucleotide analyses confirmed the separation of the species Diaphorodoris alba Portmann & Sandmeier, 1960 and D. luteocincta (M. Sars, 1870), revealing some diagnostic nucleotides producing a 2D structural diversity [ 18 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the stem-loop L9 nucleotide analyses confirmed the separation of the species Diaphorodoris alba Portmann & Sandmeier, 1960 and D. luteocincta (M. Sars, 1870), revealing some diagnostic nucleotides producing a 2D structural diversity[18]. Moreover, the L7 and L13 stem-loops resulted to be diagnostic in separating the two sibling Mediterranean species Caloria elegans (Alder and Hancock, 1845) and Facelina quatrefagesi (Vayssière, 1888)[29].The case of the family Myrrhinidae is particularly intriguing due to the importance of the charismatic species included and because the genera belonging to this family were the object of recent integrative taxonomic studies, which, however, could not resolve important aspect of their systematics[31,32]. The latter studies have highlighted the possible polyphyletic nature of the Myrrhinidae genera that invoked more in-depth studies to resolve open questions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 80%

“…In particular, an important character that has proved very useful are Compensatory Base Changes, CBCs, that are defined as two mutations that occur in a paired region of a primary RNA transcript so that pairing itself is maintained (e.g., G-C mutates to A-U) [ 28 ]. On the contrary, information derived from the folded structure of the 16S rRNA has not been utilised in molluscan groups, except for two works by Furfaro et al [ 18 , 29 ], who analysed this barcoding marker in a couple of sympatric sibling sea slugs (gastropods). These authors reported 2D structural diversity of the 16S rRNA, mainly utilising the highly variable L7 and L13 stem-loops [ 30 ], demonstrating that secondary RNA structure information is a valuable additional diagnostic tool for integrative taxonomy and species delimitation [ 18 , 29 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Looking at the Nudibranch Family Myrrhinidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) from a Mitochondrial ‘2D Folding Structure’ Point of View

Furfaro

Mariottini

2021

Life

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Integrative taxonomy is an evolving field of multidisciplinary studies often utilised to elucidate phylogenetic reconstructions that were poorly understood in the past. The systematics of many taxa have been resolved by combining data from different research approaches, i.e., molecular, ecological, behavioural, morphological and chemical. Regarding molecular analysis, there is currently a search for new genetic markers that could be diagnostic at different taxonomic levels and that can be added to the canonical ones. In marine Heterobranchia, the most widely used mitochondrial markers, COI and 16S, are usually analysed by comparing the primary sequence. The 16S rRNA molecule can be folded into a 2D secondary structure that has been poorly exploited in the past study of heterobranchs, despite 2D molecular analyses being sources of possible diagnostic characters. Comparison of the results from the phylogenetic analyses of a concatenated (the nuclear H3 and the mitochondrial COI and 16S markers) dataset (including 30 species belonging to eight accepted genera) and from the 2D folding structure analyses of the 16S rRNA from the type species of the genera investigated demonstrated the diagnostic power of this RNA molecule to reveal the systematics of four genera belonging to the family Myrrhinidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia). The “molecular morphological” approach to the 16S rRNA revealed to be a powerful tool to delimit at both species and genus taxonomic levels and to be a useful way of recovering information that is usually lost in phylogenetic analyses. While the validity of the genera Godiva, Hermissenda and Phyllodesmium are confirmed, a new genus is necessary and introduced for Dondice banyulensis, Nemesis gen. nov. and the monospecific genus Nanuca is here synonymised with Dondice, with Nanuca sebastiani transferred into Dondice as Dondice sebastiani comb. nov.

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