Case Study
Title & Categories
| Case Study Title: | Barcoding evaluation for Anthozoa and Medusozoa, problematic Cnidarian groups |
| Focus Theme: | Adding barcodes to a large survey of a taxonomic group, Biotic inventory of multiple taxa in a region or habitat |
| Geographic Region: | Central America, Unspecified |
| Habitat Type: | Marine - Other, Freshwater - Other, Terrestrial tropical forest |
| Taxonomic Group: | d: Arthropoda - Hexapoda - Hymenoptera, d: Porifera, d: Arthropoda - Hexapoda - Diptera |
Scope
To assess the utility of CO1 as a marker for specimen identification and phylogenetic reconstruction, we will sample both Anthozoa and Medusozoa at all hierarchical levels: populations of the same species, species in the same genus, genera in the same family, families in the same order, and orders in the same class. This structured sampling is especially important in Anthozoa, because low rates of mitochondrial evolution have raised concerns about the feasibility of genetic barcodes for Cnidaria as a whole. We propose to remedy these problems by sequencing cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) from nearly 200 cnidarians: 96 from class Anthozoa, and 96 from its sister clade, Medusozoa (classes Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa).
Purpose
Some Cnidarian groups are known, others suspected, of not having enough variation at the COI gene for utility in DNA Barcoding. We plan to systematically test this on many of the groups in question. Many of the groups we will be evaluating have no COI information yet, but have had concerns raised because of the questions about the feasibility of genetic barcodes for Cnidaria as a whole.
Background
The need for new methods and tools for species identification is particularly keen in understudied groups such as Cnidaria, where identification keys are rare, the number of taxonomic experts is low, and the taxonomic characters are often microscopic and thus inaccessible to most workers. Furthermore, because there are few experts, high–quality, well-documented samples are rare, and their comparative genetic data is scarce. We propose to remedy these problems by sequencing cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1) from nearly 200 cnidarians: 96 from class Anthozoa, and 96 from its sister clade, Medusozoa (classes Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa). These sequences will provide a comparative framework to assess sequence diversity across this important group of basal metazoans, and will provide an opportunity to document and study a group in which genetic barcoding has been problematic.
Logistics
The work will be conducted in LAB at SI/NMNH by AC in the lab run by LW and under our current DNA barcoding protocols and instrumentation. We have the expertise, we have the personnel to do the work, we have the instrumentation and infrastructure to generate and analyze the data. We are passively seeking funding support internally to pay for the benchwork. LAB will support some of the basic costs as it does every bench project.