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Genealogical relationships within and among shallow-water Ciona species (Ascidiacea)

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Abstract

In spite of historical and current interest in Ciona intestinalis and its congeners, little is known about evolutionary relationships among the members of the genus Ciona. Here 744-bp sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene are used to examine phylogenetic relationships among three described species (C. intestinalis, C. roulei, C. savignyi) sampled from multiple coastal sites in the Northeast Pacific (CA, USA), Northwest Atlantic (from New Hampshire to Connecticut, USA), Northeast Atlantic (Sweden and The Netherlands), and Mediterranean (Banyuls-sur-Mer, France). The samples were collected in June–October 2005. The COI sequences of Northeast Pacific/Mediterranean (Type A) and Northwest Atlantic (Type B) C. intestinalis differ by ∼12% and C. roulei is nested within Type B C. intestinalis. Ciona savignyi differs from all other haplotypes by 13–16%. A previously undescribed but morphologically distinct Ciona sp. found at the Banyuls-sur-Mer site was >10% divergent from all other haplotypes. Although these data arise from a single gene study, they indicate that further elucidation of species relationships within the genus and of the species’ distributions will be needed if continuing invasions and potential reproductive isolation are to be investigated.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Fiala-Medioni, P. Romans, and J-C. Roca at the Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-mer for their generous intellectual and logistic support. We are also indebted to X. Turon and M. Pascual for helpful discussions and travel assistance, to A. Gittenberger and C. Dahlberg for Northeast Atlantic C. intestinalis samples, to J. Friel and C. Dardia for sample preservation advice, to B. Swalla, C. and G. Lambert, J. Carlton and P. Sordino for illuminating Ciona discussions. We thank members of the Harrison Lab, A. Clark, B. Swalla, P. Sordino, J. Grassle and two anonymous reviewers for providing comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by a Cornell University Sigma ** Grant to M.L.N. All experiments complied with current laws of the country from which the samples were collected.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Marie L. Nydam & Richard G. Harrison

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  1. Marie L. Nydam
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Correspondence to Marie L. Nydam.

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Communicated by J.P. Grassle.

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Nydam, M.L., Harrison, R.G. Genealogical relationships within and among shallow-water Ciona species (Ascidiacea). Mar Biol 151, 1839–1847 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0617-0

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