Margelopsid species search taxonomic home within Corymorphidae and Boreohydridae

Daria Kupaeva; Tatiana Lebedeva; Zachariah Kobrinsky; Daniel Vanwalleghem; Andrey Prudkovsky; Stanislav Kremnyov

doi:10.7717/peerj.16265

Margelopsid species search taxonomic home within Corymorphidae and Boreohydridae

PeerJ. 2023 Dec 4:11:e16265. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16265. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Daria Kupaeva¹, Tatiana Lebedeva², Zachariah Kobrinsky³, Daniel Vanwalleghem⁴, Andrey Prudkovsky⁵, Stanislav Kremnyov^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Embryology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
² Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
³ Unaffiliated, Independent Wildlife Photographer, New York City, United States of America.
⁴ Plankton Monitoring Station, Ostend, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
⁶ Laboratory of Morphogenesis Evolution, Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology RAS, Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

Planktonic lifestyle of polyps in representatives of Margelopsidae are very different from all other species in the hydrozoan clade Aplanulata. Their evolutionary origin and phylogenetic position have been the subject of significant speculation. A recent molecular study based only on COI data placed Margelopsidae as a sister group to all Aplanulata, an unexpected result because margelopsid morphology suggests affiliation with Tubulariidae or Corymorphidae. Here we used multigene analyses, including nuclear (18S rRNA and 28S rRNA) and mitochondrial (16S rRNA and COI) markers of the hydroid stage of the margelopsid species Margelopsis haeckelii and the medusa stage of Margelopsis hartlaubii to resolve their phylogenetic position with respect to other hydrozoans. Our data provide strong evidence that M. haeckelii, the type species of Margelopsis, is a member of the family Corymorphidae. In contrast, M. hartlaubii is sister to Plotocnide borealis, a member of Boreohydridae. These results call into question the validity of the genus Margelopsis and the family Margelopsidae. The systematic position of M. haeckelii is discussed in light of the phylogeny of Corymorphidae.

Keywords: Cnidaria; Corymorphidae; Hydrozoa; Margelopsidae; Margelopsis haeckelii; Margelopsis hartlaubi; Molecular phylogeny; Plotocnide borealis.

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
Hydrozoa* / anatomy & histology
Phylogeny
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / genetics

Substances

RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S

Grants and funding

This study was supported by federal project 0088-2021-0009 of the Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of the RAS (Stanislav Kremnyov) and the Scientific Project of the State Order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University, grants No. 121032300118–0 (Andrey Prudkovsky) and No. 121032300066-4 (Stanislav Kremnyov). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.