Despite their ecological and evolutionary interests, the phylogeny of Asteroidea (sea stars) is still subject to debate at several taxonomic levels. In the present study, we assemble new mitochondrial genomes for 15 species, including three newly characterized families (Odontasteridae, Poraniidae, and Stichasteridae) and representing an important addition for two orders (Velatida and Spinulosida). By analysing them alongside the 31 previously available mitogenomes, we evaluate mitogenomic variation (mitogenome organization and phylogenetic relationships) within the class. Gene order and sizes were concordant with previous studies. However, an alternative initiation codon (ATT for NAD1) was found in two Pterasteridae species. Evolutionary patterns between orders provided some interesting insights (e.g. Spinulosida as the sister-group to the Valvatida + Paxillosida), but the most novel patterns were observed among families (e.g. close relationships of Stichasteridae and Paulasteriidae; close relationships of Odontasteridae and Poraniidae; Brisingidae and Freyellidae as sister-group to the Asteriidae, Paulasteridae, and Stichasteridae). Finally, we found Pterasteridae to be paraphyletic, which could lead to the incorporation of Myxasteridae within Pterasteridae. Altogether, this study confirms that mitogenomes provide valuable and cost-effective markers to complement evolutionary patterns derived from nuclear data.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
