Abstract Title
Uncoiling Node Conflicts in North American Land Snail Families
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by a student grant from the UI Office of Undergraduate Research.
Abstract
The tree of life remains unresolved in highly diverse invertebrate clades due partly to a lack of available homologous sequence data between major groups. Gastropods represent one of the most diverse groups of invertebrates but their family relationships are contentious and poorly understood, particularly among North American gastropods. Part of the issue in resolving relationships between gastropod families is that a composite study using all recent publicly available sequences has not been performed. Another complication is many families are unable to be compared as they lack homologous sequence data. I propose to construct a family level phylogeny for 11 North American gastropod families using all publicly shared sequence data to identify weakly supported relationships and then add additional sequence data for any taxa descended from those problematic nodes. This approach will attempt to resolve problematic nodes by adding more sequence data to taxa lacking homologous genetic markers. The proposed research will resolve a contentious area of mollusk systematics and allow future macro-evolutionary studies of phylogeography, patterns of trait evolution, and diversification of this group. My research will also complement ongoing Oreohelicid research projects in the Parent lab by providing a deeper backbone for examining patterns within the North American Oreohelicidae.
Uncoiling Node Conflicts in North American Land Snail Families
The tree of life remains unresolved in highly diverse invertebrate clades due partly to a lack of available homologous sequence data between major groups. Gastropods represent one of the most diverse groups of invertebrates but their family relationships are contentious and poorly understood, particularly among North American gastropods. Part of the issue in resolving relationships between gastropod families is that a composite study using all recent publicly available sequences has not been performed. Another complication is many families are unable to be compared as they lack homologous sequence data. I propose to construct a family level phylogeny for 11 North American gastropod families using all publicly shared sequence data to identify weakly supported relationships and then add additional sequence data for any taxa descended from those problematic nodes. This approach will attempt to resolve problematic nodes by adding more sequence data to taxa lacking homologous genetic markers. The proposed research will resolve a contentious area of mollusk systematics and allow future macro-evolutionary studies of phylogeography, patterns of trait evolution, and diversification of this group. My research will also complement ongoing Oreohelicid research projects in the Parent lab by providing a deeper backbone for examining patterns within the North American Oreohelicidae.
Comments
T89