Multiple evolutionary transitions of reproductive strategies in a phylum of aquatic colonial invertebrates

Author(s)
Heather E. Grant, Andrew N. Ostrovsky, Helen L. Jenkins, Leandro M. Vieira, Dennis P. Gordon, Peter G. Foster, Olga N. Kotenko, Abigail M. Smith, Björn Berning, Joanne S. Porter, Wayne K. Florence, Javier Souto Derungs, Kevin J. Tilbrook, Andrea Waeschenbach
Abstract

Parental care is considered crucial for the enhanced survival of offspring and evolutionary success of many metazoan groups. Most bryozoans incubate their young in brood chambers or intracoelomically. Based on the drastic morphological differences in incubation chambers across members of the order Cheilostomatida (class Gymnolaemata), multiple origins of incubation were predicted in this group. This hypothesis was tested by constructing a molecular phylogeny based on mitogenome data and nuclear rRNA genes 18S and 28S with the most complete sampling of taxa with various incubation devices to date. Ancestral character estimation suggested that distinct types of brood chambers evolved at least 10 times in Cheilostomatida. In Eucratea loricata and Aetea spp. brooding evolved unambiguously from a zygote-spawning ancestral state, as it probably did in Tendra zostericola, Neocheilostomata, and 'Carbasea' indivisa. In two further instances, brooders with different incubation chamber types, skeletal and non-skeletal, formed clades (Scruparia spp., Leiosalpinx australis) and (Catenicula corbulifera (Steginoporella spp. (Labioporella spp., Thalamoporella californica))), each also probably evolved from a zygote-spawning ancestral state. The modular nature of bryozoans probably contributed to the evolution of such a diverse array of embryonic incubation chambers, which included complex constructions made of polymorphic heterozooids, and maternal zooidal invaginations and outgrowths.

Organisation(s)
Department of Palaeontology
External organisation(s)
Institute of Cancer Research, Natural History Museum London, Saint Petersburg State University, University of Otago, University of Exeter, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Hataitai, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand., Universität Hamburg, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, University of the Azores (UAc), Heriot-Watt University, Research and Exhibitions Department
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume
290
Pages
1-12
No. of pages
12
ISSN
0962-8452
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1458
Publication date
11-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
106054 Zoology, 106012 Evolutionary research, 106013 Genetics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Immunology and Microbiology, General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Environmental Science, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0733818e-91cd-41ff-8423-af8f7c32a74c