Thesis
An exploration of speciation and genome-wide uncertainty in flatfishes based on exon-capture data
Atta, C.J.
Record Number:
5364
Year:
2020
Pages:
100 pages
University:
University of Washington
Abstract:
The flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes) have undergone numerous taxonomic revisions but many of
their interrelationships still lack consensus among the scientific community at both the specieslevel
and deep evolutionary timescales. Phylogenetic uncertainty stems from apparent bursts of
evolution in short time periods early in the Pleuronectiformes tree, and this uncertainly is
exacerbated by an abundance of studies that incompletely and inconsistently sample taxa and
genetic markers. In order to partly address the issue of insufficient phylogenetic information, we
inferred phylogenies based on the largest molecular dataset (4434 markers via exon-capture) and
densest taxon sampling (86 species spanning 11 of the 15 families) of any flatfish study using
next-generation sequencing to date. We compared our results to phylogenetic hypotheses across
recent works, report several new hypotheses, and identify regions of the flatfish tree that are
unlikely to be further resolved with additional sampling. We also conducted species delimitation
analyses on four economically valuable species pairs in the family Pleuronectidae to evaluate
their utility in being effectively managed. Species pairs in the genera Lepidopsetta and Limanda
were found to be good species for management, while species pairs in Hippoglossoides and
Atheresthes require further taxonomic analysis.
Times Cited:
3