| Grant number: | 11/19857-3 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor |
| Start date: | February 01, 2012 |
| End date: | March 31, 2012 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups |
| Principal Investigator: | Alvaro Esteves Migotto |
| Grantee: | Karin Hoch Fehlauer Ale |
| Supervisor: | Tim Littlewood |
| Host Institution: | Centro de Biologia Marinha (CEBIMAR). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Sebastião , SP, Brazil |
| Institution abroad: | Natural History Museum, London, England |
| Associated to the scholarship: | 09/08940-7 - Molecular characterization of Bugula spp. (Bryozoa, Cheilostomata, Bugulidae): implications on taxonomy, phylogeny, and bioinvasion, BP.PD |
Abstract Studies based on DNA sequences have revealed complexes of cryptic lineages for globally distributed bryozoans, challenging the traditional concept among specialists that many of those species are truly cosmopolites. Explorations carried out during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had reported colonies of Bugula neritina in many tropical and subtropical locations around the globe, attributing to this species a natural cosmopolitan distribution. However, analysis of the variation of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) have suggested that B. neritina is a complex of at least three cryptic species, two of which apparently restricted to the U.S., and a third globally distributed. The presence of widespread lineage in different locations in the southeastern and southern coast of Brazil has been detected by analyses of COI. Consistent with the lack of variation of this gene and the reduced ability of larval dispersal of the species, the hypothesis of anthropogenic introduction seems to be a viable explanation to justify the cosmopolitan distribution of that lineage. However, the area of origin of this haplotype cannot be inferred only based on COI analysis, due its lack of variability/phylogeographic information. In this context, the objectives of this research project permeate the investigation of phylogeographic patterns of the widespread lineage of B. neritina in a global scale, and the detection of the evolutionary processes responsible for such a distribution. (AU) | |
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