26
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Chemical Ecology of Cave-Dwelling Millipedes: Defensive Secretions of the Typhloiulini (Diplopoda, Julida, Julidae)

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Cave animals live under highly constant ecological conditions and in permanent darkness, and many evolutionary adaptations of cave-dwellers have been triggered by their specific environment. A similar “cave effect” leading to pronounced chemical interactions under such conditions may be assumed, but the chemoecology of troglobionts is mostly unknown. We investigated the defensive chemistry of a largely cave-dwelling julid group, the controversial tribe “Typhloiulini”, and we included some cave-dwelling and some endogean representatives. While chemical defense in juliform diplopods is known to be highly uniform, and mainly based on methyl- and methoxy-substituted benzoquinones, the defensive secretions of typhloiulines contained ethyl-benzoquinones and related compounds. Interestingly, ethyl-benzoquinones were found in some, but not all cave-dwelling typhloiulines, and some non-cave dwellers also contained these compounds. On the other hand, ethyl-benzoquinones were not detected in troglobiont nor in endogean typhloiuline outgroups. In order to explain the taxonomic pattern of ethyl-benzoquinone occurrence, and to unravel whether a cave-effect triggered ethyl-benzoquinone evolution, we classed the “Typhloiulini” investigated here within a phylogenetic framework of julid taxa, and traced the evolutionary history of ethyl-benzoquinones in typhloiulines in relation to cave-dwelling. The results indicated a cave-independent evolution of ethyl-substituted benzoquinones, indicating the absence of a “cave effect” on the secretions of troglobiont Typhloiulini. Ethyl-benzoquinones probably evolved early in an epi- or endogean ancestor of a clade including several, but not all Typhloiulus (basically comprising a taxonomic entity known as “ Typhloiulus sensu stricto”) and Serboiulus. Ethyl-benzoquinones are proposed as novel and valuable chemical characters for julid systematics.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10886-017-0832-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

          Related collections

          Most cited references46

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: found
          Is Open Access

          Selecting optimal partitioning schemes for phylogenomic datasets

          Background Partitioning involves estimating independent models of molecular evolution for different subsets of sites in a sequence alignment, and has been shown to improve phylogenetic inference. Current methods for estimating best-fit partitioning schemes, however, are only computationally feasible with datasets of fewer than 100 loci. This is a problem because datasets with thousands of loci are increasingly common in phylogenetics. Methods We develop two novel methods for estimating best-fit partitioning schemes on large phylogenomic datasets: strict and relaxed hierarchical clustering. These methods use information from the underlying data to cluster together similar subsets of sites in an alignment, and build on clustering approaches that have been proposed elsewhere. Results We compare the performance of our methods to each other, and to existing methods for selecting partitioning schemes. We demonstrate that while strict hierarchical clustering has the best computational efficiency on very large datasets, relaxed hierarchical clustering provides scalable efficiency and returns dramatically better partitioning schemes as assessed by common criteria such as AICc and BIC scores. Conclusions These two methods provide the best current approaches to inferring partitioning schemes for very large datasets. We provide free open-source implementations of the methods in the PartitionFinder software. We hope that the use of these methods will help to improve the inferences made from large phylogenomic datasets.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Book: not found

            Cave Biology

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Convergent Evolution of Unique Morphological Adaptations to a Subterranean Environment in Cave Millipedes (Diplopoda)

              Animal life in caves has fascinated researchers and the public alike because of the unusual and sometimes bizarre morphological adaptations observed in numerous troglobitic species. Despite their worldwide diversity, the adaptations of cave millipedes (Diplopoda) to a troglobitic lifestyle have rarely been examined. In this study, morphological characters were analyzed in species belonging to four different orders (Glomerida, Polydesmida, Chordeumatida, and Spirostreptida) and six different families (Glomeridae, Paradoxosomatidae, Polydesmidae, Haplodesmidae, Megalotylidae, and Cambalopsidae) that represent the taxonomic diversity of class Diplopoda. We focused on the recently discovered millipede fauna of caves in southern China. Thirty different characters were used to compare cave troglobites and epigean species within the same genera. A character matrix was created to analyze convergent evolution of cave adaptations. Males and females were analyzed independently to examine sex differences in cave adaptations. While 10 characters only occurred in a few phylogenetic groups, 20 characters were scored for in all families. Of these, four characters were discovered to have evolved convergently in all troglobitic millipedes. The characters that represented potential morphological cave adaptations in troglobitic species were: (1) a longer body; (2) a lighter body color; (3) elongation of the femora; and (4) elongation of the tarsi of walking legs. Surprisingly, female, but not male, antennae were more elongated in troglobites than in epigean species. Our study clearly shows that morphological adaptations have evolved convergently in different, unrelated millipede orders and families, most likely as a direct adaptation to cave life.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                guenther.raspotnig@uni-graz.at
                Journal
                J Chem Ecol
                J. Chem. Ecol
                Journal of Chemical Ecology
                Springer US (New York )
                0098-0331
                1573-1561
                16 March 2017
                16 March 2017
                2017
                : 43
                : 4
                : 317-326
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2166 9385, GRID grid.7149.b, Institute of Zoology, , University of Belgrade - Faculty of Biology, ; Studentski Trg 16, Belgrade, 11000 Serbia
                [2 ]ISNI 0000000121539003, GRID grid.5110.5, Institute of Zoology, , University of Graz, ; Universitätsplatz 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
                [3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2166 9385, GRID grid.7149.b, Faculty of Chemistry, , University of Belgrade, ; Studentski trg 12-16, Belgrade, 11000 Serbia
                [4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2097 3094, GRID grid.410344.6, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Department of Animal Diversity and Resources, , Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, ; 2 Gagarin Street, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
                [5 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2192 3275, GRID grid.11355.33, Department of Zoology and Anthropology, , Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”, ; Sofia, Bulgaria
                [6 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2166 9385, GRID grid.7149.b, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, , University of Belgrade, ; Studentski trg 12-16, Belgrade, 11000 Serbia
                [7 ]ISNI 0000 0000 8988 2476, GRID grid.11598.34, Research Unit of Osteology and Analytical Mass Spectrometry, , Medical University, Children’s Hospital, ; Auenbruggerplatz 30, 8036 Graz, Austria
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6947-9406
                Article
                832
                10.1007/s10886-017-0832-1
                5399059
                28303527
                55e74c0a-cc9e-4e08-b7bf-455f68659369
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

                History
                : 8 November 2016
                : 13 February 2017
                : 27 February 2017
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001822, Austrian Academy of Sciences;
                Award ID: 23811
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Ministry of Education and Science of Serbia
                Award ID: 173038; 172053
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

                Ecology
                typhloiulini,typhloiulus,serboiulus,lamellotyphlus,2-ethyl-1,4-benzoquinone,quinone millipedes,chemical defense,chemosystematics

                Comments

                Comment on this article