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The Diatom World pp 119–142Cite as

Status of the Pursuit of the Diatom Phylogeny: Are Traditional Views and New Molecular Paradigms Really That Different?

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 19))

Abstract

Diatoms are often referred to one of six structural groups. The two major groups are centrics and pennates, and each is further subdivided. Centrics are either radial centrics or (bi-)multipolar (or simply polar) centrics. The former typically are circular and lack any prominent structures which may be paired or multiply arranged so as to give some sort of visually prominent polarity to the cell. Polar centrics have such structures and often have elongate outlines. Pennates are either araphid pennates or raphid pennates, depending on whether or not they possess a raphe. These structural groups have been arranged differently through time, whether the source of data was morphology and the method of analysis noncanonical or whether the data were molecular and analyzed by more formal methods. Both congruence and conflict between these various approaches have been claimed. Diatomists have rejected traditional views because they conflict with molecular results in some instances, and yet reject molecular results because they conflict with morphologically based results in others. Such conflicts are rarely formally tested. Here, we formally test several traditional hypotheses and a recent molecular-based reclassification of diatoms against a three-gene combined molecular dataset. Centrics are strongly rejected as monophyletic. However, some relationships could not be rejected. Monophyly of araphids is not statistically worse than the best tree (in which araphids are recovered as a grade). Monophyly of radial centrics and of polar centrics cannot be rejected, nor can a competing hypothesis (in which radial centrics are a grade and the Thalassiosirales are part of that grade). This last result is congruent with complex morphological characters and is an example of the value of formally testing conflict and congruence between datasets, and of the potential value of formal phylogenetic analysis of diatom morphology.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by NSF EF 0629410 awarded to Theriot and Jansen and by the Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professorship in Molecular Evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas Natural Science Center, University of Texas, 2400 Trinity Street, Austin, TX, 78619, USA

    Edward C. Theriot

  2. Section of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station (A6700), Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Edward C. Theriot & Robert K. Jansen

  3. Plant Biology Graduate Program, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station (A6700), Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Elizabeth Ruck, Matt Ashworth & Teofil Nakov

  4. Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station (A6700), Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Robert K. Jansen

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  1. Edward C. Theriot
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  2. Elizabeth Ruck
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  3. Matt Ashworth
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  4. Teofil Nakov
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Correspondence to Edward C. Theriot .

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  1. Jerusalem, The Hebrew University Of, P.O.Box 1132, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

  2. , Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural, Henderson Bldg., 15th & Broadway, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    Patrick Kociolek

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Theriot, E.C., Ruck, E., Ashworth, M., Nakov, T., Jansen, R.K. (2011). Status of the Pursuit of the Diatom Phylogeny: Are Traditional Views and New Molecular Paradigms Really That Different?. In: Seckbach, J., Kociolek, P. (eds) The Diatom World. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1327-7_5

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