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Imaging Dendritic Spines in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: September 27, 2021
A phylogenetic perspective on larval spine morphology in Leucorrhinia (Odonata: Libellulidae) based on ITS1, 5.8S,
Rasmus Hovmöller1, Frank Johansson
1Department of Entomology, Swedish Museum of Natural History and Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, P.O. Box 500 07, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden. rasmus.hovmoller@nrm.se
Abstract:
Leucorrhinia (Odonata, Anisoptera, Libellulidae) consists of 14-15 species with a holarctic distribution. We have combined the morphological characters of a previous study with sequence data from the ITS1, 5.8S rDNA, and ITS2 regions of the nuclear ribosomal repeat. Cloning was used to investigate the intra-individual variation and such variation was found in all investigated species. Parsimony jackknifing was used to identify supported groups. The effect of sequence alignment and gap coding was explored by a modified sensitivity analysis. Loss of spines in Leucorrhinia larvae has occurred twice: once in Europe and once in North America. The role of spines as a defence against predation is discussed in a phylogenetic context.
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