African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (4), pp. 318-320, 16 January 2006 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals Review Is there any phylogenetic relationship between teleosts and the elasmobranchs? MNE Dosay-Akbulut Afyon Kocatepe Üniversity, Veterinary Faculty, Medical Biology and Genetics Department, AFYON/TURKEY. Phone: 00902722281311/148. E-Mail: [email protected]. Accepted 3 January, 2006 There is still disagreement with regard to identifying the sister group of the tetrapods? Different hypotheses were suggested for this relationship. The aim of this article was to present and summarize some of these studies, which were based on the possible phylogenetic relationship between Chondrichtyes and land vertebrates (tetrapods). Key words: Phylogenetic, relationship, Chondrichthyes and tetrapods. INTRODUCTION For many years, numerous investigators have been trying Chondrichthyes. It is commonly known that cartilaginous to better understand the evolution of the vertebrates, fishes, Chondrichthyes, have a place among the especially the phylogeny of the tetrapods or land Gnathostomata, and their relation could be viewed as the vertebrates. Most of the information comes from sister group of all other gnathostomes (i.e., paleontological or anatomic work. Nucleic acid and osteichthyans) (Miller and Loates, 1997; Rasmussen and protein sequence analyses are very recent techniques Arnason, 1999a; Rasmussen et al., 1998). and are providing new information on the subject As mentioned above currrent phylogenetic theory (Bernardi et al., 1992). The relationship of the divide recent gnathostomes into two major groups, the Chondrichthyes to other groups of fishes has been a Chondrichthyes and the Osteichthyes (bony fishes). This topic of discussion for more than a century. For example, separation based on the absence of typical bony fish Schaeffer and Williams (1977) suggest that the characteristics in the Chondrichthyes such as a Elasmobranchii and the Holocephalii are sister groups, swimbladder and bony skeleton, teeth/tooth plates not and that the Chondrichthyes are more closely related to fused to the jaw and separate gill openings. Osteichthyes the Teleostomi than the Placodermi based on certain split further into Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) and characteristics of the skull, skeleton, fin supports and fins. Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish). Actinopterygii divide into the Cladistia (bichirs) and all other actinopterygians (teleostii), while on the other hand Sarcopterygians THE SYSTEMATIC POSITIONS OF THE include the coelacanth (only one living species, Latimeria CHONDRICHTHYES AND TELEOSTS chalumnae), lungfish (dipnoans) and tetrapods. Sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fishes) have bony fins and The vertebrates are divided into two main groups, some of them have lungs for respiration; therefore it is Agnathans (jawless vertebrates, including hagfishes and commonly accepted that sarcopterygians are closely lampreys) and gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates). The related to the ancestral tetrapods (Rasmussen and current phylogenetic theory divides the recent Arnason, 1999a; Cao et al., 1998). gnathostomes (jawed fishes) into two groups which are the cartilaginous fishes and bony fishes (osteichthyes). Cartilaginous fishes include sharks, skates, rays and SUMMARY OF SOME PREVIOUS RESEARCH chimeras, which have a soft, firm tissue in the endoskeleton. They have a prismatic calcified cartilage Recently, nucleic acid and protein sequences have instead of bone and together form a group in the class provided new information about where the cartilaginous Dosay-Akbulut 319 fishes are placed within the tree of bony fishes. For were split about 420 MYBP. The divergence of the example, Rasmussen and Arnason (1999a) sequenced coelacanth and the teleost/chondrichthyan branch 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes from the following occurred ~ 310 MYBP, and of the cladistian (bichir) and fishes: sea lamprey, lungfish, bichir, coelacanth coelacanth/teleost/chondrichthyans ~ 380 MYBP. These (Latimeria chalumnae), cod, loach, rainbow trout and a results offer different explanations for the relationship Chondrichthyes, represented by the spiny dogfish between gnathostome and cartilaginous fishes with (Squalus acanthias). They used as an outgroup the regard to the same main morphological characteristics, echinoderms, represented by one starfish and two sea lung/swimbladder, bone/cartilage, and the exoskeleton, urchins and sea lamprey . In the same research, they rather than the commonly accepted gnathostome also did analyses with the addition of four amniotes. relationship based on the same characters (Rasmussen These authors sought phylogenetic relationships among and Arnason, 1999b). gnathostomes using the sea lamprey, which is the closest Bernardi et al. (1992) sequenced 18S rRNA from two relative of the gnathostomes, as an outgroup. These teleostean fish species, Fundulus heteroclitus and analyses included the following fishes: lungfish, bichir, Sebastolobus and two sharks, Squalus acanthias and coelacanth, cod, rainbow trout and spiny dogfish and four Echinorhinus cookei. After that, the sequences were amniotes: chicken, ostrich, wallaroo and cow compared with 18S rRNA sequences of the coelacanth (Rasmussen and Arnason, 1999a). Latimeria chalumnae, the frog Xenopus laevis, and Both phylogenetic analyses placed the spiny dogfish humans for phylogenetic conclusion. Maximum representing the chondrichtyes, among the bony fishes. parsimony analyses consistently grouped the two teleosts Both the amino acid and nucleotide data sets support this and two sharks together (Bernardi, et al.,1992). position. The lungfish was in the most basal position Mallatt and Sullivan (1998) also tried to establish the among all gnathostome fishes, while the bichir in the relationship between the lamprey and hagfish, and they second most basal position. The wanted to test the classical hypothesis of monophyly of coelacanth/shark/teleostean clade was high and the cyclostomes (lampreys plus hagfishes), which is very phylogenetic analysis values ranged from 84 to 99% in similar to the Stock and Whitt study, to provide more different studies. The spiny dogfish was placed as the results. For this work, 92-97% complete 28S and partial sister group of the teleosts within the same clade (without 5.8S rDNA sequences were obtained from five chordate amniotes) (Rasmussen and Arnason, 1999a). species, the lancelet Branchiostoma floridae, the hagfish In the same year in a different study, the same authors Eptatretus stouti, the lamprey Petromyzon marinus and concluded that cartilaginous fishes have a terminal the cartilaginous fishes Hydrolagus colliei (the position in the piscine tree. To better understand chimaeroid) and dogfish shark Squalus acanthias which vertebrate evolution and clarify the gnathostome were then analysed with previously reported 28S and relationship, Rasmussen and Arnason (1999b) 18S rDNA sequences from other chordates from sequenced complete mtDNA from starry skate (Raja Genbank. Additionally, one trout Oncorhynchus mykiss radiata) with 3 squalomorph chondrichthyans, the was used to provide a small segment of the 28S gene. common dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula), the spiny However, in this research, the interrelationship of the dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and star spotted dogfish major groups of jawed bony fishes and tetrapod (Mustelus manazo) with several bony fishes and vertebrates (Osteichthyes) was not found as expected. amniotes. In this study, the most closely related For example, the frog never grouped with the coelacanth. nongnathostome species, sea lamprey was used as an Maybe because of region, they choose to work. On the outgroup (Rasmussen and Arnason, 1999b). other hand, in all trees, where both cartilaginous fishes In unrooted ML analysis, the teleosts and the (shark and chimaera) grouped together and were placed chondrichthyans form sister groups, and the NJ analysis with the bony fishes (Stock and Witt, 1992; Mallat and places the chondrichthyans in a terminal position in the Sullivan, 1998). piscine tree with support values for the sister group In another study, Delarbre et al. (1998) worked with relationship between chondrichthyans and teleosts are another dogfish species and sequenced the complete 78% (ML), 79% (NJ), and 70% (MP). These results genome of the mitochondrial DNA of the dogfish suggest that the origin of the amniote lineage is older Scyliorhinus canicula. In addition, they compared it with than oldest extant bony fishes (the lungfishes). The the mtDNA genomic map of carp (Cyprinus carpio), oldest lungfish fossils go back 400 million years, and by chicken (Gallus gallus), coelacanth (Latimeria using this as a calibration point, the squalomorphs and chalumnae), lancelet (Branchistoma lanceolatum), loach batomorphs were separated about 190 million years (Crossostoma lacustre), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus before the present (MYBP). This dating was also mykiss) and sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). The supported by the first appearance of batomorph (skates phylogenetic analyses using the NJ method with Kimura’s and rays) fossils in paleontological records. In these two parameter distance from Phylip shows that the records, the origin of the Chondrichthyes goes back ~290 Chondrichthyes are the sister group of the Osteichthyes MYBP. The gnathostome fishes and the amniote lineage and the dogfish placed with a gnathostome monophyly, 320 Afr. J. Biotechnol. while with a significantly