Taxonomic insights and evolutionary history in East Asian terrestrial slugs of the genus Meghimatium
Taxonomic insights and evolutionary history in East Asian terrestrial slugs of the genus Meghimatium
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107730
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发表时间：
2023-02-24
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Hirano, Takahiro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ito, Shun;Yamazaki, Daishi;Hirano, Takahiro
东亚，特别是日本列岛，是脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的生物多样性热点。由于生物和非生物因素对其形态特征（如壳的形状和大小）的影响，软体动物代表了该地区物种多样性的爆发。然而，东亚陆栖蛞蝓的进化历史仍然未知。在本研究中，我们研究了Meghimatium属陆地蛞蝓的分子系统发育。该属包括三个描述和八个未描述的物种，我们的研究使用了所有，除了两个。基于系统发育和物种划分试验，Meghimatium属被分成许多假定的物种，表明更高的物种多样性比以前认为的形态和解剖学研究的基础上，几乎未描述的物种可能是不合适的。因此，形态特征，如身体大小和颜色，传统上被认为是分类可能很容易变化或相似的地理区域。此外，该属的分歧时间与日本大陆形成的地理时间尺度几乎一致。我们的研究结果表明，分子遗传学有助于分类日本Meghimatium蛞蝓，但需要全面的分类修订，使用多位点分析。
East Asia, specifically the Japanese Archipelago, is a biodiversity hotspot of both vertebrates and invertebrates. Mollusks represent a burst of species diversity in this region due to the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on their morphological traits, such as shell shape and size. However, the evolutionary history of terrestrial slugs in East Asia remains unknown. In the present study, we investigated the molecular phylogeny of terrestrial slugs of the genus Meghimatium. This genus includes three described and eight undescribed species, and our study used all except for two. Based on phylogeny and the species delimitation tests, the genus Meghimatium was split into many putative species, suggesting higher species diversity than previously thought based on morphological and anatomical studies and that almost undescribed species may be inappropriate. Therefore, morphological traits, such as body size and colour, conventionally considered for classification may easily vary or be similar across geographic region. Moreover, the divergence time of this genus is almost concordant with the geographical time scale of the formation of the Japanese mainland. Our findings suggest that molecular phylogenetics helps classify Japanese Meghimatium slugs, but comprehensive taxonomic revisions using multi-locus analyses are needed.