Evolution of Dugesia in the Western Mediterranean

The genus Dugesia (Tricaldida, Platyhelminthes) constitutes one of the most representative groups of freshwater planarians in the Mediterranean ecosystems. Despite its high diversity in the Western Mediterranean, the evolutionary history of Dugesia has been poorly studied in this region. In this project, transcriptomic data is used to study the evolution of Dugesia in the Western Mediterranean. Different phylogenetic inference methods were used to analyse single-copy orthologs extracted from transcriptomic data. In addition, differential expression analyses between sexual and asexual animals have been performed to study the expression profiles of populations with different reproductive strategies.

真涡虫属（Dugesia）隶属于扁形动物门（Platyhelminthes）三肠目（Tricaldida），是地中海生态系统中最具代表性的淡水涡虫类群之一。尽管西地中海区域内该类群具有较高的多样性，但针对该区域内真涡虫属演化历史的研究仍较为匮乏。本项目利用转录组数据（transcriptomic data），开展西地中海真涡虫属的演化研究：采用多种系统发育推断方法（phylogenetic inference methods），对从转录组数据中提取的单拷贝直系同源基因（single-copy orthologs）进行分析；此外，本研究还对有性与无性个体开展了差异表达分析（differential expression analyses），以解析不同生殖策略（reproductive strategies）种群的表达谱（expression profiles）特征。