A Multi-Gene Phylogeny of Maxillopod Crustaceans to Facilitate Comparative Study of Eye Evolution

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Abstract for DEB-0316330A grant has been awarded to Dr. Todd H. Oakley of the University of California-Santa Barbara to study eye evolution and evolutionary relationships of maxillopod crustaceans (including barnacles, ostracods, and copepods). The research has two major goals: first, to collect extensive DNA sequence data to estimate maxillopod evolutionary relationships and second to use those results to test important hypotheses about eye evolution. To achieve their first goal, the researchers propose a three-fold strategy. First, they have assembled a team of collaborators with complementary expertise in the major maxillopod groups. Second, they will sample a diverse array of about 100 maxillopod species. Third, they will obtain DNA sequence from four different gene regions that will allow not only resolution of maxillopod evolutionary relationships, but also integration with other studies on evolutionary relationships of arthropods (including other crustaceans, insects, spiders, and centipedes/millipedes). To facilitate future study, all data and results will be made broadly available via a website dedicated to maxillopod phylogeny. The second major goal is to use the resulting evolutionary relationships to examine the evolution of eyes; most notably, to test the fascinating possibility that compound eyes evolved multiple times within maxillopods. Understanding the evolutionary relationships among these crustaceans will be extremely valuable. The Maxillopoda have enormous potential to inform us about evolution, biodiversity, ecology and global change because they are benefactors of detailed fossil record, riotous diversity, and cosmopolitan distribution. These organisms are abundant wherever there is water and can serve for example as indicators of ecological disturbance. The studies of eye evolution will also be important. A long-standing question in evolutionary biology is how often and how rapidly complex traits such as eyes evolve. This study will address these questions in a group of organisms particularly amenable to laboratory study.