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A molecular evolutionary framework for the phylum Nematoda

Nature volume 392, pages 71–75 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Nematodes are important: parasitic nematodes threaten the health of plants, animals and humans on a global scale1,2; interstitial nematodes pervade sediment and soil ecosystems in overwhelming numbers3; and Caenorhabditis elegans is a favourite experimental model system4. A lack of clearly homologous characters and the absence of an informative fossil record have prevented us from deriving a consistent evolutionary framework for the phylum. Here we present a phylogenetic analysis, using 53 small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences from a wide range of nematodes. With this analysis, we can compare animal-parasitic, plant-parasitic and free-living taxa using a common measurement. Our results indicate that convergent morphological evolution may be extensive and that present higher-level classification of the Nematoda will need revision. We identify five major clades within the phylum, all of which include parasitic species. We suggest that animal parasitism arose independently at least four times, and plant parasitism three times. We clarify the relationship of C. elegans to major parasitic groups; this will allow more effective exploitation of our genetic and biological knowledge of this model species.

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Figure 1: MP analysis of SSU sequences from 53 nematode taxa.
Figure 2: A phylogenetic hypothesis for the phylum Nematoda based on the SSU-sequence dataset.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our colleages for donations of nematode material, and D. Swofford for use of prerelease versions of PAUP*4.0. This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust, the Linnean Society of London, the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, the NSF, the NIH and the United States Department of Agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK

    Mark L. Blaxter

  2. Department of Morphology, Systematics and Ecology, University of Gent, Gent, B-9000, Belgium

    Paul De Ley, Patsy Scheldeman, Andy Vierstraete & Jacques R. Vanfleteren

  3. International Institute of Parasitology, St Albans, AL4 0XU, UK

    Paul De Ley

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, 33620, Florida, USA

    James R. Garey

  5. Department of Medicine, Harvard-Thorndike Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Leo X. Liu

  6. NemaPharm, Inc, 26 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Leo X. Liu

  7. Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, 77030, Texas, USA

    Laura Y. Mackey

  8. Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 64110, Missouri, USA

    Mark Dorris, Linda M. Frisse, J. T. Vida & W. Kelley Thomas

Authors
  1. Mark L. Blaxter
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  11. J. T. Vida
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  12. W. Kelley Thomas
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Correspondence to Mark L. Blaxter.

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Blaxter, M., De Ley, P., Garey, J. et al. A molecular evolutionary framework for the phylum Nematoda. Nature 392, 71–75 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/32160

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