Meeting Abstract

34.3  Jan. 5  Analysis of Glycerol 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase and Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Calcium Ion Channel ATPase for Potential Use in Deep Metazoan Phylogeny CAMPBELL, Terry/G*; GAREY, James/R; University of South Florida; University of South Florida tcampbe2@chuma.cas.usf.edu

Genetic sequence data have been used to analyze phylogenetic relationships for over a decade and numerous data sets have been generated for testing metazoan relationships at many taxonomic levels. Because of the rapid divergence of major animal forms during the Cambrian radiation, deep phylogenetic relationships among metazoans have been particularly difficult to determine. Most molecular level studies of broad metazoan phylogeny have utilized ribosomal RNA gene sequences or have contained only a few phyla. Only a few studies have used nuclear protein coding genes and broad representation across Metazoa. Highly conserved and thus easily amplified nuclear protein coding genes such as the elongation factor 1 alpha gene (EF1&alpha) have been proven unsatisfactory for deep metazoan phylogeny because they do not contain enough phylogenetic information. We are exploring the use of the glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (G3PDH) and sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ion channel ATPase (SERCA) because they are more variable than EF1&alpha but is conserved enough to be amplified relatively easily. Here we present an analysis of a metazoan datasets of G3PDH and SERCA and assess the potential of these genes for resolving deep phylogenetic relationships within Metazoa.