[PDF] Molluscan Models in Evolutionary Biology: Apple Snails (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae) as a System for Addressing Fundamental Questions* | Semantic Scholar (2024)

The great majority of the work to date concerns a single species, Pomacea canaliculata, which the authors see as having the potential to become a model organism in a wide range of fields, however, additional comparative data are essential for understanding this diverse and potentially informative group.

A comprehensive transcriptome data for multiple ampullariid genera and species is generated, and AmpuBase, a relational database that features online BLAST functionality for DNA/protein sequences, keyword searching for unigenes/functional terms, and download functions for sequences and whole transcriptomes is created.

The results suggest that Pila may have dispersed into SEA on at least two separate occasions, and that invasive confamilial Pomacea species appear to be replacing native Pila species, particularly in the Chao Phraya basin.

The genomes of four ampullariids spanning the Old World and New World have conserved ancient bilaterial karyotype features and a novel Hox gene cluster rearrangement, making them valuable in comparative genomic studies.

The functional role of the lung in P. canaliculata is discussed and some similarities in the pattern of the evolution of air dependence in this family of gastropods are pointed to.

The results obtained indicate that the Old and New World ampullariids are reciprocally monophyletic with probable Gondwanan origins, and that defining the sister group of the Ampullariidae and clarifying relationships among basal caenogastropods will require increased taxon sampling within these four families, and synthesis of both morphological and molecular data.

The field results indicate that lengthy copulations previously reported for P. canaliculata were not an artefact and that there was no effect of male size, the time at which copulation began, the mating status of snails or of the presence of prowler males on the duration of copulation.

Phylogenetic analyses of COI sequences from 96 snails sequenced for this study, along with additional sequences from GenBank, recovered P. sordida and P. intermedia as sister taxa in a clade sister to P. patula and recovered both species in aquatic habitats in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The taxonomy is clarified, the morphological and genetic distinctiveness of the two species are described, and their biogeographic ranges are re-evaluate.

The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN), holds one of the largest collections of ampullariid type material, for which the annotated catalogue is provided, and to stabilise the nomenclature, lectotypes for 24 species-group taxa are designated.

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By virtue of their abundance and diversity in the Recent fauna, gastropods have been used in studies spanning numerous biological disciplines, including ecology, physiology, developmental biology, population genetics, biodiversity, biomechanics, biogeography, and molecular evolution.

It is confirmed that a proto-Biomphalaria glabrata gave rise to all African species through a trans-Atlantic colonization of Africa, and interesting patterns occur regarding schistosome susceptibility: the most susceptible hosts belong to a single clade, and several susceptible Neotropic species are sister groups to apparently refractory species, and some basal lineages are susceptible.

The world’s gastropod fauna from continental waters comprises ∼4,000 valid described species and a minimum of 33–38 independent lineages of Recent Neritimorpha, Caenogastropoda and Heterobranchia, but the status of the great majority of taxa is unknown, a situation that is exacerbated by a lack of experts and critical baseline data.

It is hypothesized that evolutionary lineages leading to Saulea and the American genera were isolated from each other by vicariance events (Gondwanaland break‐up 130–110 Mya) and the very low genetic diversity of the endemic radiation of Lanistes in Lake Malawi suggests that the morphological divergence has happened much faster than the molecular divergence as is also evidenced from the cichlid radiations.

The present study found that Ancylidae as traditionally understood, i.e. covering most freshwater limpet gastropods, is paraphyletic, as the genera of Burnupia and Protancylus have been shown to lie phylogenetically outside the Ancylini.

The phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that although repeated invasions in Melanoides may have an impact on indigenous molluscan faunas, their most likely effect is the world‐wide hom*ogenization of the invasive taxon itself.

The results obtained indicate that the Old and New World ampullariids are reciprocally monophyletic with probable Gondwanan origins, and that defining the sister group of the Ampullariidae and clarifying relationships among basal caenogastropods will require increased taxon sampling within these four families, and synthesis of both morphological and molecular data.

Comparisons with published distribution patterns of unrelated fish groups indicate that several of the reconstructed and dated hydrogeological–cladogenetic events may have acted at a large scale on the diversification of Neotropical freshwater fish fauna during late Tertiary.

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