title: Looks can deceive: molecular phylogeny of a family of flatworm ectoparasites (Monogenea: Capsalidae) does not reflect current morphological classification.
abstract: The morphological based taxonomy of highly derived parasite groups is likely to poorly reflect their evolutionary relationships. The taxonomy of the monogenean family Capsalidae, which comprises approximately 180 species of flatworm parasites that predominantly attach to external surfaces of chondrichthyan and teleost fishes, is based mainly on six morphological characters. The phylogenetic history of the family is largely unknown. We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of 47 species in 20 genera from eight of the nine subfamilies, from nucleotide sequences of three unlinked nuclear genes, 28S ribosomal RNA, Histone 3 and Elongation Factor 1 alpha. Our phylogeny was well corroborated, with 75% of branches receiving strong support from both Bayesian posterior probabilities and maximum likelihood bootstrap proportions and all nodes showed positive partitioned likelihood support for each of the three genes. We found that the family was monophyletic, with the Gyrodactylidae and Udonellidae forming the sister group. The Capsalinae was monophyletic, however, our data do not support monophyly for the Benedeniinae, Entobdellinae and Trochopodinae. Monophyly was supported for Capsala, Entobdella, Listrocephalos, Neobenedenia and Tristoma, but Benedenia and Neoentobdella were polyphyletic. Comparisons of the distribution of character states for the small number of morphological characters on the molecular phylogeny show a high frequency of apparent homoplasy. Consequently the current morphological classification shows little correspondence with the phylogenetic relationships within the family.
authors.affiliation: Marine Parasitology Laboratory, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DX 650 418), The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. elizabeth.perkins@adelaide.edu.au
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: Steve C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Donnellan
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bertozzi
authors.forename: Leslie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Chisholm
authors.forename: Ian D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Whittington
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D010986:Platyhelminths / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018509:DNA, Helminth