Meeting Abstract

P1.209  Saturday, Jan. 4 15:30  Rooting for Clarity: A Phylogenetic Reconstruction of the Nudibranch Family Tritoniidae HULETT, R.E.*; GOSLINER, T.M.; California Academy of Sciences/San Francisco State University; California Academy of Sciences rhulett@calacademy.org

Nudibranchs are vibrant marine gastropods that have a muddled evolutionary history. Classifications were previously based on morphological characters; however, there are instances where physical features fail to correctly discern these organisms. Morphology does not always reflect true relatedness, as there are plenty of instances where nudibranchs look similar but vary genetically; however, these organisms can be resolved using mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Little is known about the evolutionary history of nudibranchs and it is important to tease out these relationships and clarify evolutionary lineages in order to assess the overall biodiversity in marine systems and to lay the foundation for future work with these organisms. The Nudibranch family Tritoniidae requires molecular data to accurately construct robust phylogenetic relationships. I will analyze the following gene fragments: COI (Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I), 16S, 28S, and H3 (Histone 3) to reconstruct evolutionary relationships within the family. Using the concatenated sequences, I will perform parsimony bootstrap analyses, maximum likelihood analyses, and Bayesian analyses, which will result in the construction of well-supported clades and provide a robust framework for future studies pertaining to biodiversity assessment, fisheries management, and coevolution. I have increased taxon sampling and expanded on genetic markers that were lacking in previous studies, which allows me to accurately assess the genera, survey diversity, and map characteristics to uncover major events in Tritoniid evolution.