Genome skimming resolves the phylogeny of giant clams (subfamily Tridacninae)

Giant clams (subfamily Tridacninae) are conspicuous and well-known bivalves of the Indo-Pacific reefs, yet a robust understanding of their phylogeny remains limited. This has been attributed to the difficulty in sampling rare or uncommon species and the poor resolution in phylogenetic trees reconstructed due to finite information of single-gene markers used. Here, we aim to construct a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of the giant clams by genome skimming using the MiSeq platform, supplemented with existing sequences from GenBank. Sixteen loci consisting of 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes, mitochondrial 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes, and the nuclear 18S ribosomal RNA gene are targeted for phylogenetic analyses.