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Beginning the quest: phylogenetic hypothesis and identification of evolutionary lineages in bats of the genus Micronycteris (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae).

ABSTRACT: Thirteen species of Neotropical bats of the genus Micronycteris are currently recognized and are allocated to four subgenera Leuconycteris, Micronycteris, Schizonycteris, and Xenonectes. Despite that, the presence of polyphyletic clades in molecular phylogenies suggests that its diversity is underestimated. Additionally, the incorrect identification of some genetic sequences, the incorrect assignation of available valid names, and restricted geographic sampling have biased the identification of independently evolutionary lineages within Micronycteris. In this study, several unknown genealogical lineages in the genus are identified and an updated phylogenetic hypothesis is proposed using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA fragments. The phylogenetic analyses congruently showed all individuals in four well-supported subgenera, but M. schmidtorum was revealed as the sister taxon of M. brosseti in the subgenus Leuconycteris. Twenty-seven different genealogical lineages were identified. These included eight confirmed species: M. brosseti, M. buriri, M. giovanniae, M. matses, M. schmidtorum, M. simmonsae, M. tresamici, and M. yatesi. Nineteen either allopatric or parapatric candidate species were also confirmed, two within the M. hirsuta complex, nine within the M. megalotis complex, seven within the M. minuta complex, and one corresponding to "M. sp.". These results revealed an extensive undescribed diversity within each subgenus of Micronycteris. Nevertheless, the evolutionary processes associated with the specific radiations are poorly understood. This is just the beginning of the assessment of the taxonomy and systematics of Micronycteris, which requires additional integrative taxonomical approaches for its advance.

SUBMITTER: Morales-Martinez DM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8044067 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:New World leaf-nosed bats, Phyllostomidae, represent a lineage of Chiroptera marked by unprecedented morphological/ecological diversity and extensive intergeneric chromosomal reorganization. There are still disagreements regarding their systematic relationships due to morphological convergence among some groups. Their history of karyotypic evolution also remains to be documented. RESULTS:To better understand the evolutionary relationships within Phyllostomidae, we developed chromosome paints from the bat species Macrotus californicus. We tested the potential of these paints as phylogenetic tools by looking for chromosomal signatures in two lineages of nectarivorous phyllostomids whose independent origins have been statistically supported by molecular phylogenies. By examining the chromosomal homologies defined by chromosome painting among two representatives of the subfamily Glossophaginae (Glossophaga soricina and Anoura cultrata) and one species from the subfamily Lonchophyllinae (Lonchophylla concava), we found chromosomal correspondence in regions not previously detected by other comparative cytogenetic techniques. We proposed the corresponding human chromosomal segments for chromosomes of the investigated species and found two syntenic associations shared by G. soricina and A. cultrata. CONCLUSION:Comparative painting with whole chromosome-specific paints of M. californicus demonstrates an extensive chromosomal reorganization within the two lineages of nectarivorous phyllostomids, with a large number of chromosomes shared between M. californicus and G. soricina. We show that the evolution of nectar-feeding bats occurs mainly by reshuffling of chiropteran Evolutionarily Conserved Units (ECUs). Robertsonian fusions/fissions and inversions seem to be important modifiers of phyllostomid karyotypes, and autapomorphic character states are common within species. Macrotus californicus chromosome paints will be a valuable tool for documenting the pattern of karyotypic evolution within Phyllostomidae radiation.

Project description:The bat family Nycteridae contains only the genus Nycteris, which comprises 13 currently recognized species from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, one species from Madagascar, and two species restricted to Malaysia and Indonesia in South-East Asia. We investigated genetic variation, clade membership, and phylogenetic relationships in Nycteridae with broad sampling across Africa for most clades. We sequenced mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb) and four independent nuclear introns (2,166 bp) from 253 individuals. Although our samples did not include all recognized species, we recovered at least 16 deeply divergent monophyletic lineages using independent mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear datasets in both gene tree and species tree analyses. Mean pairwise uncorrected genetic distances among species-ranked Nycteris clades (17% for cytb and 4% for concatenated introns) suggest high levels of phylogenetic diversity in Nycteridae. We found a large number of designated clades whose members are distributed wholly or partly in East Africa (10 of 16 clades), indicating that Nycteris diversity has been historically underestimated and raising the possibility that additional unsampled and/or undescribed Nycteris species occur in more poorly sampled Central and West Africa. Well-resolved mitochondrial, concatenated nuclear, and species trees strongly supported African ancestry for SE Asian species. Species tree analyses strongly support two deeply diverged subclades that have not previously been recognized, and these clades may warrant recognition as subgenera. Our analyses also strongly support four traditionally recognized species groups of Nycteris. Mitonuclear discordance regarding geographic population structure in Nycteris thebaica appears to result from male-biased dispersal in this species. Our analyses, almost wholly based on museum voucher specimens, serve to identify species-rank clades that can be tested with independent datasets, such as morphology, vocalizations, distributions, and ectoparasites. Our analyses highlight the need for a comprehensive revision of Nycteridae.

Project description:BackgroundThe family Pteropodidae comprises bats commonly known as megabats or Old World fruit bats. Molecular phylogenetic studies of pteropodids have provided considerable insight into intrafamilial relationships, but these studies have included only a fraction of the extant diversity (a maximum of 26 out of the 46 currently recognized genera) and have failed to resolve deep relationships among internal clades. Here we readdress the systematics of pteropodids by applying a strategy to try to resolve ancient relationships within Pteropodidae, while providing further insight into subgroup membership, by 1) increasing the taxonomic sample to 42 genera; 2) increasing the number of characters (to >8,000 bp) and nuclear genomic representation; 3) minimizing missing data; 4) controlling for sequence bias; and 5) using appropriate data partitioning and models of sequence evolution.ResultsOur analyses recovered six principal clades and one additional independent lineage (consisting of a single genus) within Pteropodidae. Reciprocal monophyly of these groups was highly supported and generally congruent among the different methods and datasets used. Likewise, most relationships within these principal clades were well resolved and statistically supported. Relationships among the 7 principal groups, however, were poorly supported in all analyses. This result could not be explained by any detectable systematic bias in the data or incongruence among loci. The SOWH test confirmed that basal branches' lengths were not different from zero, which points to closely-spaced cladogenesis as the most likely explanation for the poor resolution of the deep pteropodid relationships. Simulations suggest that an increase in the amount of sequence data is likely to solve this problem.ConclusionsThe phylogenetic hypothesis generated here provides a robust framework for a revised cladistic classification of Pteropodidae into subfamilies and tribes and will greatly contribute to the understanding of character evolution and biogeography of pteropodids. The inability of our data to resolve the deepest relationships of the major pteropodid lineages suggests an explosive diversification soon after origin of the crown pteropodids. Several characteristics of pteropodids are consistent with this conclusion, including high species diversity, great morphological diversity, and presence of key innovations in relation to their sister group.

Project description:The Old World leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) are aerial and gleaning insectivores that occur throughout the Paleotropics. Both their taxonomic and phylogenetic histories are confused. Until recently, the family included genera now allocated to the Rhinonycteridae and was recognized as a subfamily of Rhinolophidae. Evidence that Hipposideridae diverged from both Rhinolophidae and Rhinonycteridae in the Eocene confirmed their family rank, but their intrafamilial relationships remain poorly resolved. We examined genetic variation in the Afrotropical hipposiderids Doryrhina, Hipposideros, and Macronycteris using relatively dense taxon-sampling throughout East Africa and neighboring regions. Variation in both mitochondrial (cyt-b) and four nuclear intron sequences (ACOX2, COPS, ROGDI, STAT5) were analyzed using both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. We used intron sequences and the lineage delimitation method BPP-a multilocus, multi-species coalescent approach-on supported mitochondrial clades to identify those acting as independent evolutionary lineages. The program StarBEAST was used on the intron sequences to produce a species tree of the sampled Afrotropical hipposiderids. All genetic analyses strongly support generic monophyly, with Doryrhina and Macronycteris as Afrotropical sister genera distinct from a Paleotropical Hipposideros; mitochondrial analyses interpose the genera Aselliscus, Coelops, and Asellia between these clades. Mitochondrial analyses also suggest at least two separate colonizations of Africa by Asian groups of Hipposideros, but the actual number and direction of faunal interchanges will hinge on placement of the unsampled African-Arabian species H. megalotis. Mitochondrial sequences further identify a large number of geographically structured clades within species of all three genera. However, in sharp contrast to this pattern, the four nuclear introns fail to distinguish many of these groups and their geographic structuring disappears. Various distinctive mitochondrial clades are consolidated in the intron-based gene trees and delimitation analyses, calling into question their evolutionary independence or else indicating their very recent divergence. At the same time, there is now compelling genetic evidence in both mitochondrial and nuclear sequences for several additional unnamed species among the Afrotropical Hipposideros. Conflicting appraisals of differentiation among the Afrotropical hipposiderids based on mitochondrial and nuclear loci must be adjudicated by large-scale integrative analyses of echolocation calls, quantitative morphology, and geometric morphometrics. Integrative analyses will also help to resolve the challenging taxonomic issues posed by the diversification of the many lineages associated with H. caffer and H. ruber.

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Beginning the quest: phylogenetic hypothesis and identification of evolutionary lineages in bats of the genus Micronycteris (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae).

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