CAMPBELL, T.G.; GAREY, J.R.; University of South Florida; University of South Florida: Analysis of Glycerol 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase for Potential Use in Deep Metazoan Phylogeny

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 the Cambrian radiation have utilized ribosomal RNA gene sequences while only a few have used nuclear protein coding genes. Highly conserved and thus easily amplified nuclear protein coding genes such as the elongation factor 1 alpha gene (EF1a) 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) because it is more variable than EF1a but is conserved enough to be amplified relatively easily. Here we present an analysis of a metazoan dataset of G3PDH and assess the potential of this gene for resolving deep phylogenetic relationships within Metazoa.