Taxonomic and phylogenetic studies on the land planarian subfamily Geoplaninae (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida)

• Grant number: 07/03890-6
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: May 01, 2008 - April 30, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal researcher: Fernando Jesús Carbayo Baz
• Grantee: Fernando Jesús Carbayo Baz
• Home Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is the richest biome of land planarian species (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) in the world. Most of the species that inhabit this biome belong to the Geoplaninae (Geoplanidae) subfamily, an exclusively neotropical taxon. Phylogenetic relationship hypotheses between species and genera of Geoplaninae have still have not been proposed, and neither has the monophyletism of the Geoplaninae subfamily been tested (260 nominal species) nor the 16 genera that compose it. This project aims to (a) contribute with cataloguing the diversity of Geoplaninae in the State of São Paulo, and (b) to test the monophyletism of Geoplaninae and internal taxonomic entities -including species complex- and to propose relationship hypotheses between them with morphologic and molecular data. Part of the biological material is already available for both morphologic (optic microscopy) and molecular studies (tissue bank). Another necessary part for the study will be collected in different forest areas of the State. Representatives of the genera occurring in Chile and Colombia will be tentatively collected by collaborators of those countries. The sample preparation for morphologic studies will be carried out in the histology laboratory furtherly installed in the Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades - USP (School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities)- with financing from this project. The DNA extraction and its replication and sequencing will be carried out with assistance of researchers from other laboratories. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

NEGRETE‚ L.H.L.; BRUSA‚ F.; CARBAYO‚ F.. A new Peruvian land planarian species of the genus Gigantea (Platyhelminthes‚ Tricladida‚ Geoplanidae). Zootaxa, v. 2422, p. 43-52, 2010. (07/03890-6)

NEGRETE, LISANDRO H. L.; BRUSA, FRANCISCO; CARBAYO, FERNANDO. A new Peruvian land planarian species of the genus Gigantea (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae). Zootaxa, n. 2422, p. 43-52, APR 9 2010. (07/03890-6)