EVONEO-2 aims at framing neogastropod biology in an evolutionary perspective, by defining a solid DNA-based phylogeny and integrating for the first time molecular and anatomical data. Preliminary results of EVONEO-1 (2016) funded by Sapienza have already provided data upon which a proposal to NSF (USA) has been submitted by a collaborative team including the PI. Additional samples collected during EVONEO-1 are available for EVONEO-2 allowing to remarkably enlarge the coverage without the cost of fieldtrip.
Why neogastropods? Neogastropods are extremely diversified marine prosobranchs (>12,000 species from all oceans; >300 species in Mediterranean), mostly carnivores, with a range of exceptional predatory specializations.
Relevance to Biology- Excellent experimental models in all fields of Biology, from baseline to applied research. Adequate knowledge of their evolutionary biology is highly demanded, particularly the phylogenetic and ecological dimensions, but a phylogenetic framework for the Neogastropoda is still missing. This is goal of EVONEO.
Background- PI co-authored the first DNA-based phylogenetic hypothesis for the neogastropods, showing that wider taxonomic and genetic sampling may significantly improve resolution. With EVONEO-1 we have assembled transcriptomic NGS data from some species to identify last generation markers for phylogenetics.
Aims- EVONEO-2¿s primary aim is to complete a solid phylogenetic framework, mostly DNA based, for neogastropod biology, integrated by anatomical data, based on the largest amount of samples worldwide.
The project- We will identify new markers by NGS exon capture to: test the monophyly of neogastropods and of their major lineages; identify the most probable caenogastropod sister-group; define a reliable molecular phylogeny for the neogastropod families; analyse in this framework the evolution of anatomical and biological features, particularly of those involved in the diversification of feeding strategies.
The target of EVONEO-1 was to start providing a modern phylogenetic hypothesis for Neogastropoda, based on a multigene dataset. The aims are:
test - on a molecular basis - of the monophyly of the neogastropods and of the major lineages (families and superfamilies); identification of the probable sister-group among the caenogastropods; definition of a reliable phylogeny for ALL neogastropod families on a molecular basis; analysis in such phylogenetic framework of the evolution of the anatomical and biological features of the neogastropods; particular relevance will be given to those involved in the diversification of feeding strategies.
All aims have proven difficult to approach in the last years. These issues are faced in EVONEO for the first time, in a global perspective, by an integrated approach (molecular-anatomical) basing on next generation data. It will allow to obtain a phylogenetic pattern at the same time robust and reliable, and to follow the evolution of the biology of the different lineages, with special focus on the evolution of the biochemistry component of the alimentary strategies.
As a preliminary results we have already resolved the phylogeny of a major subfamily of the Muricidae (Ocenebrinae : Barco et al 2017 - interesting since they comprise pests for bivalve aquacolture), and of very puzzling genera in the carnivorous Buccinidae (Aplus: Aissaoui et al., 2016), in the dove shells (Russini et al., 2017) proving that the method performs well on Neogastropoda at various taxonomic level, from the species to the family level, which was exactly what we were searching.
The major innovation in this project consists in the fact that the molecular markers for the phylogenetic analyses will be identified in an exon capture fashion, by bioinformatics analysis of a large genomic datasets derived from transcriptomic analyses of several Neogastropoda. This will allow to build a robust phylogenetic hypothesis, ideally with high resolution at all level of the genealogic tree.
Such a modern phylogeny will by itself be a remarkable advance in the knowledge of the evolutionary biology of gastropods. At the same time a robust phylogenetic hypothesis based on a last generation dataset will represent the preliminary results to apply with more success probability to EU (ERC) and USA (NSF) funding bodies, as envisaged by the Neogastropod network to which the PI belongs.