Next-generation museum genomics: Phylogenetic relationships among palpimanoid spiders using sequence capture techniques (Araneae: Palpimanoidea)

Hannah Maria Wood, Vanessa González, Michael Lloyd, Jonathan A. Coddington, Nikolaj Scharff

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Historical museum specimens are invaluable for morphological and taxonomic research, but typically the DNA is degraded making traditional sequencing techniques difficult to impossible for many specimens. Recent advances in Next-Generation Sequencing, specifically target capture, makes use of short fragment sizes typical of degraded DNA, opening up the possibilities for gathering genomic data from museum specimens. This study uses museum specimens and recent target capture sequencing techniques to sequence both Ultra-Conserved Elements (UCE) and exonic regions for lineages that span the modern spiders, Araneomorphae, with a focus on Palpimanoidea. While many previous studies have used target capture techniques on dried museum specimens (for example,
    skins, pinned insects), this study includes specimens that were collected over the last two decades and stored in 70% ethanol at room temperature. Our findings support the utility of target capture methods for examining deep relationships within Araneomorphae: sequences from both UCE and exonic loci were important for resolving relationships; a monophyletic Palpimanoidea was recovered in many analyses and there was strong support for family and generic-level palpimanoid relationships. Ancestral character state reconstructions reveal that the highly modified carapace observed in mecysmaucheniids and archaeids has evolved independently.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
    Volume127
    Pages (from-to)907-918
    Number of pages12
    ISSN1055-7903
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2018

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