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Ultrastructure of spermatozoa of members of Calappidae, Aethridae and Menippidae and discussion of their phylogenetic placement
Author(s) -
Camargo Tavani Rocha,
Wolf Milena Regina,
Mantelatto Fernando L.,
Tudge Christopher,
Zara Fernando José
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
acta zoologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1463-6395
pISSN - 0001-7272
DOI - 10.1111/azo.12273
Subject(s) - ultrastructure , biology , acrosome , phylogenetic tree , context (archaeology) , operculum (bryozoa) , phylogenetics , evolutionary biology , reproductive biology , anatomy , zoology , genetics , gene , semen , genus , paleontology , embryogenesis
The families Aethridae and Calappidae were originally considered as part of the same family; however, their morphology and molecular biology separate them into two families. In this context, we describe the ultrastructure of spermatozoa of species of the Calappidae, Aethridae and Menippidae to elucidate the relationships among taxa. The vasa deferentia were submitted to routine protocols for transmission electron microscopy. Our results indicate that the morphology of the spermatozoa of Hepatus pudibundus supports its exclusion from the Superfamily Calappoidea due to the presence of the apical striated layer. The spermatozoa of Menippe nodifrons is very similar to H . pudibundus and corroborates the recent phylogenetic analysis using sequence data of nuclear genes. Moreover, our results evidence two morphological patterns of spermatozoa within Calappidae. Calappa ocellata and C . cinerea show spermatozoa with a wide acrosome vesicle, a thick operculum shaped as a shallow “W” and a large thickened ring. Calappa gallus and C . hepatica show spermatozoa with a longer acrosome vesicle, a pointed operculum and a slender thickened ring. Our ultrastructure results conform with previous molecular proposal and show that spermatozoa ultrastructure can be an effective tool to adjust phylogenetic relationship when used in association with molecular data.