Metabarcoding of the 18S rRNA gene to uncover new molecular biodiversity in Metazoa and unicellular Opisthokonta

One of the main evolutionary transitions is the origin of animal and fungal multicellularity from single-cell ancestors. To address this change, it is necessary to study the extant unicellular relatives of animals (Metazoa) and fungi, all of them forming the Opisthokonta clade. Recent data have show...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Sánchez Arroyo, Alicia
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/667270
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667270
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Molecular biodeversity
Opisthokonta
Metabarcoding
Prosits
Animals
Diversidad molecular
Protistas
Animales
575
Descripción
Sumario:One of the main evolutionary transitions is the origin of animal and fungal multicellularity from single-cell ancestors. To address this change, it is necessary to study the extant unicellular relatives of animals (Metazoa) and fungi, all of them forming the Opisthokonta clade. Recent data have shown that adding more taxa to the Opisthokonta tree can dramatically change our view on this transition. However, the real diversity of these organisms is mostly unknown. Therefore, the main goal of this Ph.D. was to analyse the molecular diversity of both microbial opisthokonts as well as animals, searching for genetic novelty in the form of potential novel clades, as well as trying to better understand their ecology. Using Next-Generation Sequencing data, mainly metabarcoding based on the universal marker 18S rRNA gene, I have performed phylogenetic and ecological inferences, together with graph analysis, to unravel new undescribed diversity of Opisthokonta organisms.