image: A bigeye belonging to the hyper-diverse group Eupercaria with more than 10,000 species. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Ricardo Betancur-R.
Researchers report an expanded genomic database for fishes and a set of genetic markers to resolve fish evolutionary relationships. Ray-finned fishes comprise the vast majority of fish diversity, but a lack of genomic data has hampered an understanding of the evolutionary relationships among fish orders. Lily C. Hughes and colleagues collected and sequenced 131 transcriptomes, representing all major lineages of fishes, and added the sequences to previous data to compile an extensive comparative genome database. The authors accounted for the effects of whole-genome duplications and identified a set of 1,105 exon markers that were used to track the divergence of fish orders through time. The results confirmed previously recognized deep evolutionary divisions originating more than 200 million years ago and also resolved recent evolutionary relationships. Within the percomorphs, the most species-rich group of living fishes, the authors drew links between families containing fast-swimming tuna and slow-paced seahorses, as well as between bottom-dwelling flatfish and air-breathing freshwater fish. According to the authors, the genetic markers can be used to further resolve evolutionary relationships among all fishes.
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Article #17-19358: "Comprehensive phylogeny of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) based on transcriptomic and genomic data," by Lily C. Hughes et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Lily C. Hughes, George Washington University, Washington, DC; tel: 773-383-5238; e-mail: <lilychughes@gmail.com>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences