A plurality of morphological characters need not equate with phylogenetic accuracy: A rare genomic change refutes the placement of Solifugae and Pseudoscorpiones in Haplocnemata
Date
2023-12Author
Gainett, Guilherme
Klementz, Benjamin C.
Setton, Emily V. W.
Simian, Catalina
Iuri, Hernán A.
Edgecombe, Gregory D.
Peretti, Alfredo V.
Sharma, Prashant P.
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Abstract: Recent advances in higher‐level invertebrate phylogeny have leveraged shared features of genomic architecture to resolve contentious nodes across the tree of life. Yet, the interordinal relationships within Chelicerata have remained
recalcitrant given competing topologies in recent molecular analyses. As such, relationships between topologically unstable orders remain supported
primarily by morphological cladistic analyses. Solifugae, one such unstable chelicerate order, has long been thought to be the sister group of
Pseudoscorpiones, forming the clade Haplocnemata, on the basis of eight
putative morphological synapomorphies. The discovery, however, of a shared
whole genome duplication placing Pseudoscorpiones in Arachnopulmonata
provides the opportunity for a simple litmus test evaluating the validity of
Haplocnemata. Here, we present the first developmental transcriptome of a
solifuge (Titanopuga salinarum) and survey copy numbers of the homeobox
genes for evidence of systemic duplication. We find that over 70% of the
identified homeobox genes in T. salinarum are retained in a single copy, while
representatives of the arachnopulmonates retain orthologs of those genes as
two or more copies. Our results refute the placement of Solifugae in
Haplocnemata. Subsequent reevaluation of putative interordinal morphologi-
cal synapomorphies among chelicerates reveals a high incidence of
homoplasy, reversals, and inaccurate coding within Haplocnemata and other
small clades, as well as Arachnida more broadly, suggesting existing
morphological character matrices are insufficient to resolve chelicerate
phylogeny.
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Gainett, Guilherme; Klementz, Benjamin C.; Setton, Emily V. W.; Simian, Catalina; Iuri, Hernán Augusto; et al.; A plurality of morphological characters need not equate with phylogenetic accuracy: A rare genomic change refutes the placement of Solifugae and Pseudoscorpiones in Haplocnemata; Wiley Blackwell Publishing, Inc; Evolution & Development; e12467; 12-2023; 1-18
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