Phylogenetic Relationships of Twenty-One Nereids Species Inferring Two Different Evolutionary Origins?

Abstract

Fragments of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of 21 nereids species were collected and compared to investigate the systematic and evolution of Nereididae. Total of 599 base pair (bp) nucleotide sequences revealed 285 polymorphic sites. Forty-nine variable sites were found in the corresponding 199 amino acid fragments. Phylogeny was constructed based on neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods. Two shallow evolutionary clades were found, which were associated with the main distributions or sampling locations of these species that were used in this study. It likely indicated two different evolutionary origins, a Pacific tropic zone and a North Atlantic high latitude zone.