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PubMed2026

Description of Dorea chungnamensis sp. nov., an Aerotolerant Anaerobe Isolated from Pig Feces.

A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped aerotolerant anaerobe was isolated from pig feces and designated as strain YH-dor228T. Phylogenetic analysis using 16 S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the strain was most closely related to Dorea hominis NSJ-36T, with 96.6% similarity. The phylogenomic tree revealed that the strain formed a distinct cluster within the genus Dorea. The average nucleotide identity, average amino acid identity, and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between the strain and the most closely related strains within genus Dorea ranged from 73.4 to 74.9, 66.4-70.5, and 20.0-22.2%, respectively. The major fatty acids were C14:0, C16:0, and C16:1 ω9c DMA. The cell wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The genomic DNA G + C content of the strain was 40.7%. The chemotaxonomic, phenotypic, and phylogenetic properties of YH-dor228T (= KCTC 25915T=NBRC 117235T) suggested that it represented a novel species of the genus Dorea, for which the name Dorea chungnamensis sp. nov. is proposed.

Animals↗

PubMed2026

Target Capture of Ancient Shell DNA Enables Phylogenetic Reconstruction of Deep-Sea Molluscs.

Target capture is widely used to enrich endogenous DNA from calcium phosphate skeletal material in vertebrates, but its performance on calcium carbonate hard parts widely produced by invertebrates remains poorly understood. Here, we compared DNA recovery from four fresh and 12 ancient (eight radiocarbon-dated to 1671-1135 years old before present) deep-sea vesicomyid clam shells, including species Archivesica marissinica, A. nanshaensis and A. okutanii, using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) or target capture of ultraconserved elements (UCEs). WGS achieved 16.65% on-target read recovery of UCEs from fresh soft tissue, but < 1% from shell specimens. By contrast, UCE capture in the same specimen increased on-target reads by up to 155-fold, reaching 29.84% in fresh shells and up to 72-fold, reaching 19.89% in ancient shells. Target capture of UCEs recovered 142-1001 loci per sample compared to 0-230 with WGS alone. Ancient shells of A. marissinica and A. okutanii, based on reads mapped with bwa-mem2 and bbmap, exhibited characteristic post-mortem DNA damage signals, with average 5'-end C-to-T misincorporation rates of 3.46% and 15.97%, respectively, exceeding the levels observed in fresh A. marissinica shells (maximum 1.24%). UCE-based phylogenetic reconstructions incorporating shell ancient DNA recovered two major clades within Pliocardiinae, consistent with published phylogenomic trees. Together, these findings demonstrate that target-capture enrichment enables effective recovery of highly degraded DNA from ancient mollusc shells and supports robust phylogenetic inference at the intrageneric scale, expanding the utility of shells-one of the most abundant invertebrate remains-for evolutionary, biogeographic and conservation studies.

Animals↗

PubMed2026

Phylogenomics reveals persistent gene-tree discordance in the Chenopodium album aggregate.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Complex genomic histories shaped by hybridisation and polyploidy can influence traits related to plant defence, stress tolerance and toxicity, particularly in Amaranthaceae, which includes crops such as quinoa and spinach. Within this family, white goosefoot (Chenopodium album), a widespread agricultural weed and traditional food resource, belongs to a diploid-polyploid aggregate with extensive phylogenetic discordance. Clarifying its evolutionary history provides context for interpreting ecologically and agronomically relevant trait variation across the aggregate. Building on the established genome-lineage framework, we tested whether discordance persists when constituent genome-lineage components are represented separately and whether the remaining signal is compatible with reticulate evolution. METHODS: We analysed 2,298 conserved nuclear BUSCO families across 27 assembly-level terminals using tree- and network-based approaches. Genome-lineage-aware analyses used 2,156 families after separating polyploid Chenopodium into A-H components, with Dysphania ambrosioides as outgroup. HyDe tested site-pattern asymmetry under global false-discovery-rate correction. KEY RESULTS: Assembly-level analyses grouped the Danish C. album aggregate accession Ca6-1 with hexaploid C. album sensu stricto dcCheAlbu1.1, whereas relationships among surrounding Chenopodium taxa were less stable. Genome-lineage-aware analyses recovered the expected B-, C- and D-affinity relationships, but substantial gene-family heterogeneity persisted. Reticulate network models fitted the assembly-level data better than bifurcating models, although inferred patterns differed between methods. HyDe detected significant site-pattern asymmetry in a small subset of loci, with most retained signal shared between the focal assemblies. CONCLUSIONS: Gene-tree discordance persists in the C. album aggregate after genome-lineage separation. The established genome-lineage framework captures the dominant phylogenomic structure, while residual heterogeneity is compatible with both tree-like and reticulate processes without identifying direct progenitors or a unique hybridisation history. This framework supports future analyses of lineage-specific and trait-associated loci related to plant defence, food quality and toxicity in C. album and related Amaranthaceae.

Chenopodium album↗

PubMed2026

Comparison of paralog identification methods and their impact on species tree topologies in target capture phylogenomics within the Sindora clade (Detarioideae: Leguminosae).

Target capture is a common method of generating high throughput DNA sequencing data for phylogenetic reconstruction of species relationships, for which single copy genes are usually most informative. However, a pervasive problem with target capture is that putatively single copy genes may in fact be paralogs resulting from gene duplication, which are problematic for phylogenetic inference because their evolutionary history may differ from the divergence history of species. Here, we use as a case study a target enrichment dataset of 88 species of Detarioideae (Leguminosae) with a focus on the Sindora clade to examine approaches for handling paralogs, including the built-in paralog handling functions in HybPiper and CAPTUS, plus subsequent steps using Putative Paralog Detection and the tree-based Yang & Smith orthology inference approach. We compare the paralogs flagged using these methods and verify their performance with BLAST mapping against a reference genome sequence of Sindora glabra, and then subsequently compare the species tree topologies produced across these methods. Our comparisons of paralogs flagged across the Sindora clade show that the Putative Paralog Detection pipeline was the most accurate in identifying paralogs in terms of its similarity to the BLAST mapping, followed by the built-in paralog identification function of CAPTUS. However, the results we recovered for the Detarioideae subfamily suggest that the largest differences in species tree topology resulted from the use of paralog-filtered alignments (such as with the Putative Paralog Detection pipeline and the Yang & Smith orthology inference approaches) rather than just by removing the sequences of identified paralogous genes. This was the true for HybPiper-assembled datasets but was not seen in CAPTUS-assembled datasets. In all comparisons, the topological differences caused by different paralog handling methods tended to be confined to clades where processes such as hybridisation and introgression are prevalent. Our study provides a roadmap to establish the best approach to identify, eliminate or separate paralogs in the absence of a chromosomally contiguous reference genome for a study group, and highlights the importance of careful data inspection and processing in addition to understanding the extent of paralogy and paralog characteristics (e.g. sequence divergence between copies) for their study group.

Phylogeny↗

PubMed2026

Albidovulum molybdatiresistens sp. nov., a molybdate-resistant bacterium isolated from river water.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, catalase- and oxidase-positive, white rod-shaped strain, RF13T, was isolated from water samples of the Qingliang River in Fucheng County, Hebei Province, China, and was grown at 15-42 °C (optimum 35 °C), pH 6.0-8.0 (optimum pH 7), and 0-0.5% (w/v) NaCl (optimum concentration 0%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain RF13T belonged to the genus Albidovulum, with closest sequence similarity to Albidovulum salinarum MCCC 1K0602T (97.2%), Frigidibacter oleivorans CGMCC 1.3778T (97.2%), Allgaiera indica MCCC 1A01802T (96.8%), and Pseudothioclava arenosa KCTC 52190T (96.4%). The genome size of strain RF13T was 3.7 Mb, and the DNA G+C content was 64.6%. The DNA-DNA hybridisation value (dDDH), average nucleotide identity (ANI), and average amino acid identity (AAI) between strain RF13T and the reference strain were less than 20.0%, 78.8%, and 72.8%, respectively. Chemotaxonomic analysis revealed Summed feature 8 (48.4%) (C18:1 ω6c and/or C18:1 ω7c), C18:1 ω7c 11-methyl (22.1%), C18:0 3OH (7.9%), and C10:0 3OH (5.0%) as predominant fatty acids. The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified phospholipids, and three unidentified lipids. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10), and a small amount of Q-9 was also detected. In addition, strain RF13T exhibited a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 20 mM for molybdate in R2A broth medium and was capable of reducing molybdate to molybdenum blue. Based on the results of biochemical, physiological, phylogenetic, and chemotaxonomic analyses, combined with 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses and draft genome sequence comparisons, strain RF13T was considered to represent a novel species of the genus Albidovulum, and was therefore named Albidovulum molybdatiresistens sp. nov. The type strain was RF13T (= GDMCC 1.3414T= JCM 35643T).

Phylogeny↗

PubMed2026

Beyond species trees: pervasive gene flow limits phylogenomic resolution in the diversification of Juniperus from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Understanding how lineages diversify despite persistent ancestral polymorphism and recurrent gene flow remains a central challenge in evolutionary biology. Juniperus distributed across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau provide an ideal system for addressing this question because repeated geological uplift and climatic oscillations have likely promoted cycles of lineage divergence, range shifts, and secondary contact. Here, we combined approximately 1.08 million genome-wide SNPs from 164 individuals representing thirteen Juniperus lineages with phylogenomic datasets comprising 3,381 nuclear single-copy genes and nearly complete plastomes. We detected extensive phylogenomic discordance and cytonuclear incongruence across genomic datasets. Topology weighting, coalescent simulations, quartet-based tests, and analyses of gene flow and reticulation collectively support the interpretation that these patterns were shaped by the combined effects of prolonged incomplete lineage sorting and gene flow during lineage diversification. Ecological niche analyses further provide a spatial and climatic context in which environmentally similar lineages may have had greater opportunities for secondary contact during historical range shifts. Collectively, our results reveal that the evolutionary history of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Juniperus is characterized by reticulate diversification rather than strictly bifurcating evolution, and demonstrate how genome-wide discordance can provide biological insights into the evolutionary processes underlying lineage diversification.

Gene Flow↗

PubMed2026

Phylogenomics and evolution of the Lauraceae based on targeted capture data.

The family Lauraceae, a hyper-diverse magnoliid family comprising approximately 63 genera and over 3,000 species, plays a key ecological role in tropical and subtropical forests. Yet deep relationships among its nine tribes remain unresolved, likely due to limited sampling and complex evolutionary processes such as incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and gene flow. To address these challenges, we generated datasets of 255 single-copy nuclear genes and chloroplast genomes using a newly designed Lauraceae-specific probe set, achieving the most comprehensive genus-level sampling (84%) to date. Phylogenomic analyses reconstructed a robust nuclear tree, which resolved the Neocinnamomeae as sister to the Caryodaphnopsideae and revealed pronounced gene tree conflict and pervasive cytonuclear discordance. To investigate the evolutionary processes underlying these patterns, comprehensive analyses were conducted. The results indicate that conflicting nuclear gene trees reflect the combined effects of ILS, gene tree estimation error, and gene flow, with ILS dominating across the core Lauraceae, whereas cytonuclear discordance is primarily driven by extensive gene flow. Diversification analyses further indicate that episodes of rapid lineage accumulation coincide with major gene flow events, suggesting a potential role of gene flow in the diversification of Lauraceae. Overall, this study provides a robust nuclear phylogenomic framework for Lauraceae and demonstrates that gene flow had profound effects on its evolutionary history, shedding light on the contribution of gene flow to the diversification of hyper-diverse tropical plant lineages.

Cytonuclear discordance↗

PubMed2026

In genomes we trust: Assessing genomic reliability within the family Nectriaceae.

Reliable evolutionary inference increasingly depends on public genome resources, and the effects of uneven assembly quality, incomplete metadata, and biased taxonomic sampling remain poorly quantified. Using the species-rich fungal lineage Nectriaceae as a model system, we analysed 1530 genome sequence assemblies to assess metadata completeness, sampling representation, and genome quality. One-third of the assemblies lacked essential metadata, sequencing was heavily skewed toward a few agriculturally important lineages, and sampling of many genera was limited or nonexistent. BUSCO and QUAST metrics revealed substantial heterogeneity in assembly quality, with widespread fragmentation and numerous assemblies falling outside expected quality thresholds. From 763 single-copy orthologs identified in 576 higher-quality genomes, we reconstructed a phylogenomic backbone and quantified gene- and site-level concordance across the tree. Although major clades were broadly recovered, extensive gene-tree discordance and a polyphyletic Fusarium nisikadoi species complex revealed unresolved boundaries and conflict among loci. These results show how data quality, incomplete sampling, and discordant genomic histories can constrain phylogenomic resolution, and provide a general framework for improving comparative genomic resources and large-scale evolutionary inference.

Gene-tree discordance↗

PubMed2026

Whole genome-based reclassification of the genus Metabacillus: Proposal for five novel genera, Chryseobacillus gen. nov., Cohnibacillus gen. nov., Salimetabacillus gen. nov., Pantoeobacillus gen. nov., and Lutimetabacillus gen. nov. and the description of one novel bacterial species, Chryseobacillus diguaensis sp. nov. isolated from soil in the Digua reservoir.

Comprehensive phylogenomic and comparative genomic analyses were conducted to clarify the taxonomic boundaries of the genus Metabacillus. Phylogenetic trees reconstructed from a set of single-copy orthologous proteins (SCOPs) revealed that the genus, as currently defined, is polyphyletic. The type species of the genus Metabacillus and its closest relatives formed a consistent clade, herein designated as Metabacillus sensu stricto. The remaining species were grouped into three well-supported clades: Kandeliae, Indicus, and Mangrovi, and two single-taxon lineages: M. arenae and M. lacus. The phylogenomic delineation found in these divergent taxa was corroborated by either inconsistent distribution patterns or the absence of previously defined conserved signature indels (CSIs) specific to Metabacillus. Genomic metrics, including Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI), Average Amino acid Identity (AAI), and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) further supported the taxonomic delineation proposed here. The observed genomic divergence was mirrored by phenotypic differences, including variations in GC content ranges. Based on this polyphasic evidence, we propose the reclassification of the genus Metabacillus taxa into five novel genera: Chryseobacillus gen. nov. (encompassing the Kandeliae clade), Cohnibacillus gen. nov. (M. lacus), Salimetabacillus gen. nov. (M. arenae), Pantoeobacillus gen. nov. (Indicus clade), and Lutimetabacillus gen. nov. (Mangrovi clade). The core lineage is retained as Metabacillus sensu stricto, for which an emended description of the genus Metabacillus is also provided. A novel bacterial strain, designated as MAU-250T, was isolated from a soil sample collected on the shore of an artificial reservoir in the Andean foothills of the Maule Region in central Chile. Public metagenome screening supported a low-abundance taxon with broad ecological adaptability, preferentially associated with soil habitats. A polyphasic analysis based on phenotypic traits and genomic distances (78.0% ANIb and 19.8% dDDH against its closest relative) also supported its designation as a novel species, for which the name Chryseobacillus diguaensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MAU-250T (=RGM 3146T = IMI 507634T).

Phylogeny↗

PubMed2026

Introgression shapes the genomic conflict landscape of Malus, providing evidence for a reticulate backbone in a woody crop lineage.

Phylogenomic discordance is widespread across plants, but its evolutionary significance is often obscured when conflict is treated primarily as analytical noise rather than as evidence of underlying processes. In woody lineages in particular, incomplete lineage sorting, introgression, and genome duplication can interact over long timescales to produce complex genomic histories that are not adequately summarized by a strictly bifurcating tree. Here, we use Malus as a model woody genus to investigate how these processes structure conflict across a genus-scale, accession-based phylogenomic framework. Using broad taxon sampling, hundreds of nuclear loci, plastid genomes, and genome-wide SNP summaries, we reconstruct a robust nuclear backbone for sampled Malus lineages and evaluate where discordance is concentrated and which processes best explain it. Nuclear analyses resolve eight major clades, whereas conflict is non-random and localized to recurrent hotspots rather than evenly distributed across the tree. Cytonuclear discordance is similarly concentrated, especially around Clade H, represented by sampled accessions of M. tschonoskii, where localized plastid-nuclear disagreement is consistent with candidate plastid capture or organellar introgression. Multiple complementary analyses further indicate that the strongest conflict is not explained by ILS alone, but instead reflects lineage-structured introgression, while polyploid complexes represent additional localized sources of evolutionary complexity. Together, these results provide evidence for a reticulate genomic backbone in Malus and show how integrating nuclear, plastid, and genome-wide conflict analyses can help distinguish background discordance from process-specific signals in woody plant radiations. Several lineage-level reticulation hypotheses identified here should now be tested with broader population-level sampling and curated reference accessions.

Malus↗

PubMed2025

MyESL: A Software for Evolutionary Sparse Learning in Molecular Phylogenetics and Genomics.

Evolutionary sparse learning uses supervised machine learning to build evolutionary models where genomic sites loci are parameters. It uses the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator with bi-level sparsity to connect a specific phylogenetic hypothesis with sequence variation across genomic loci. The MyESL software addresses the need for open-source tools to perform evolutionary sparse learning analyses, offering features to preprocess input phylogenomic alignments, post-process output models to generate molecular evolutionary metrics, and make Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator regression adaptable and efficient for phylogenetic trees and alignments. The core of MyESL, which constructs models with logistic regressions using bi-level sparsity, is written in C++. Its input data preprocessing and result post-processing tools are developed in Python. Compared to other tools, MyESL is more computationally efficient and provides evolution-friendly inputs and outputs. These features have already enabled the use of MyESL in two phylogenomic applications, one to identify outlier sequences and fragile clades in inferred phylogenies and another to build genetic models of convergent traits. In addition to the use in a Python environment, MyESL is available as a standalone executable compatible across multiple platforms, which can be directly integrated into scripts and third-party software. The source code, executable, and documentation for MyESL are openly accessible at https://github.com/kumarlabgit/MyESL.

Phylogeny↗

PubMed2026

Phlag: scalable detection of genomics regions with unexplained phylogenetic heterogeneity.

MOTIVATION: Phylogenetic analyses of entire genomes (phylogenomics) have revealed abundant heterogeneity of evolutionary histories. While much has been done to model this heterogeneity and to infer species trees despite it, the current toolkit has a limitation. Most methods assume that gene trees across the genome differ but are all sampled from the same distribution, defined by models such as the multi-species coalescent (MSC), and parametrized consistently across the genome. Empirical data strongly suggest this assumption is often violated because the species tree, its parameters, or the process generating the gene trees can all change across the genome. Errors in the data can further compound this heterogeneity. RESULTS: To address this challenge, we define the problem of detecting what segments of the genome are inconsistent with a putative species tree, even after allowing discordance according to MSC. We model gene trees not as a set, but rather as a series (a realization of a stochastic process) along genomic positions. We propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approach applied to quartet statistics measured from gene trees and tie the model to MSC using simulations. The combined use of these three ideas leads to a scalable method called Phlag. On simulated and real data, we show that Phlag can detect many cases of change in underlying evolutionary processes, including reduced recombination rates, population size changes, and admixture, all using the same algorithm. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Phlag is available at github.com/bo1929/phlag. All results and scripts can be found at github.com/bo1929/shared.phlag.

Phylogeny↗

PubMed2026

Phlag: Scalable detection of genomics regions with unexplained phylogenetic heterogeneity.

MOTIVATION: Phylogenetic analyses of entire genomes (phylogenomics) have revealed abundant heterogeneity of evolutionary histories. While much has been done to model this heterogeneity and to infer species trees despite it, the current toolkit has a limitation. Most methods assume that gene trees across the genome differ but are all sampled from the same distribution , defined by models such as the multi-species coalescent (MSC), and parametrized consistently across the genome. Empirical data strongly suggest this assumption is often violated because the species tree, its parameters, or the process generating the gene trees can all change across the genome. Errors in the data can further compound this heterogeneity. RESULTS: To address this challenge, we define the problem of detecting what segments of the genome are inconsistent with a putative species tree, even after allowing discordance according to MSC. We model gene trees not as a set, but rather as a series (a realization of a stochastic process) along genomic positions. We propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approach applied to quartet statistics measured from gene trees and tie the model to MSC using simulations. The combined use of these three ideas leads to a scalable method called Phlag. On simulated and real data, we show that Phlag can detect many cases of change in underlying evolutionary processes, including reduced recombination rates, population size changes, and admixture, all using the same algorithm. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Phlag is available at github.com/bo1929/phlag . All results and scripts can be found at github.com/bo1929/shared.phlag .

Journal Article↗

PubMed2026

Can't see the forest for the trees: The influence of marker type on inferred phylogenetic relationships in a cosmopolitan bat genus.

Fine-resolution information on species relationships and biological diversity is critically needed to guide conservation efforts amidst rapid environmental changes. Systematics, which forms the foundation of this knowledge, has been revolutionized by phylogenomics, utilizing genome-scale datasets. However, the use of diverse marker types, non-comparable taxon sampling, and outgroup selection can lead to conflicting phylogenetic hypotheses. These inconsistencies complicate study comparisons and hinder our ability to assess marker-specific impacts on phylogenetic resolution. The phylogenetic reconstruction of the bat genus Myotis, encompassing over 140 species and characterized by a rapid radiation in the last 20 million years, has been particularly influenced by these challenges. Achieving phylogenetic resolution in Myotis is particularly complex due to subtle interspecific differences in both morphological and molecular traits. Mitochondrial and nuclear markers often produce discordant trees, influenced by hybridization, introgression, and methodological variations. In this study, we employed a consistent taxonomic sample set of 44 Myotis taxa to evaluate the impact of five different genetic marker types on phylogenetic reconstruction. We observed significant discordance between topologies derived from conserved nuclear and mitochondrial markers and found that transposable elements were inadequate for resolving relationships across the entire genus. Our results also clarify the placement of previously problematic taxa within the genus. These findings emphasize the importance of aligning genetic marker choice with specific phylogenetic questions and highlight the influence of taxonomic and methodological variation on phylogenomic outcomes. This work provides a framework for improving phylogenetic inference in rapidly radiating groups and enhances our understanding of evolutionary history in Myotis.

Animals↗

PubMed2026

Nuclear single-copy orthologous genes as phylogenomic markers for resolving the closely related firefly genera Pteroptyx, Medeopteryx, and Trisinuata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae).

Fireflies (Lampyridae) are bioluminescent beetles with broad ecological roles across temperate and tropical ecosystems, occupying diverse habitats including forests, wetlands, grasslands, mangroves, and riverine systems. The subfamily Luciolinae is primarily distributed across Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Phylogenetic relationships among three closely related Luciolinae genera - Medeopteryx, Pteroptyx, and Trisinuata - remain unresolved using mitochondrial genome data alone. This study used nuclear genome data to resolve relationships among these genera and identify a lighter-weight nuclear marker panel for expanding taxon sampling. Draft genomes were reconstructed for fifteen firefly species, eight from the focal genera, and analyzed with five published firefly genomes. Using BUSCO and OrthoFinder, 1,011 nuclear single-copy orthologs (SCOs) were identified for phylogenomic inference. Discordance between concatenation- and coalescence-based phylogenies indicated incomplete lineage sorting (ILS). The coalescence-based phylogeny recoveredPteroptyxas monophyletic and sister to a (Medeopteryx,Trisinuata) clade, with Trisinuata nested within a non-monophyletic Medeopteryx; however, quartet support at the base of Pteroptyx, particularly at Pt. valida, was low.Filtering for compositional homogeneity, clock-likeness, and species-tree concordance yielded 103 SCOs with a significantly higher proportion of parsimony-informative sites than non-selected loci, retaining the backbone topology with higher gene concordance support at scored clades, while ILS-driven discordance at Pt. valida persists - confirming that the reduced panel retains phylogenetic resolving power for future taxon sampling. These findings demonstrate a practical framework for using nuclear SCOs to resolve close phylogenetic relationships within Luciolinae. Future work should expand taxon sampling - especially forTrisinuata - alongside long-read assemblies, for a more robust phylogenomic framework.

Fireflies↗

PubMed2025

Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of Eden's Whale Clarifies the Taxonomy and Speciation of Bryde's Whale Complex.

Eden's whale (Balaenoptera edeni), a poorly understood baleen cetacean, has long been shrouded in taxonomic ambiguity due to limited genomic resources, obscuring its distinction from closely related species and its position within the cetacean Tree of Life. In this paper, we present a high-quality chromosomal-level genome of B. edeni and conduct comparative genomic analyses to address long-standing taxonomic confusion and elucidate speciation of balaenopterids. Our phylogenomic analysis and demographic reconstruction reveal that B. edeni is a distinct sister to Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei), sharing a common ancestor that diverged approximately 7.84 million years ago during the late Miocene. Their genetic divergence exceeds typical intraspecific variation in whales, supporting the reinstatement of B. brydei as a valid species. Chromosomal syntenic analyses suggest that macro-fragment inversions contributed to speciation in balaenopterid whales and uncover unexpected large-scale complex genome rearrangements in Bryde's whale, offering novel insights into cetacean genome evolution. Functional enrichment analysis of inverted regions between B. edeni and Balaenoptera musculus indicates their predominant association with metabolism and biosynthesis, as well as responses to various substances, stress, and stimuli. These genomic resources for B. edeni not only lay a critical foundation for comparative genetic and evolutionary research of cetaceans but also advance our understanding of the taxonomy and evolutionary dynamics of the Bryde's whale complex, with broader implications for baleen whale conservation and biodiversity.

Animals↗

PubMed2025

Assembling genomes of non-model plants: A case study with evolutionary insights from Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae).

Whereas genome sequencing and assembly technologies are improving, cost can still be prohibitive for plant species with large, complex genomes. As a consequence, genomics work on some taxa in evolutionarily pivotal positions in the vascular plant tree of life has been hampered. The species-rich genus Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae) is an important angiosperm group for the study of polyploidy, apomixis, and reticulate evolution. However, neither mitochondrial nor high-quality nuclear genome sequences are available. This limits phylogenomic, functional, and taxonomic analyses thus far. Here, we tested Illumina short-read, Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) and PacBio (HiFi) long-read, and hybrid-read assembly strategies. We sequenced the diploid progenitor species R. cassubicifolius (R. auricomus species complex) and selected the best assemblies in terms of completeness, contiguity, and quality scores. We first assembled the plastome (156 kbp, 85 genes) and mitogenome (1.18 Mbp, 40 genes) sequences using Illumina and Illumina-PacBio-hybrid strategies, respectively. We also present an updated plastome and the first mitogenome phylogeny of Ranunculaceae, including studies of gene loss (e.g., infA, ycf15, or rps) with evolutionary implications. For the nuclear genome sequence, we favored a PacBio-based assembly polished three times with filtered short reads and subsequently scaffolded into eight pseudochromosomes by chromatin conformation data (Hi-C). We obtained a haploid genome sequence of 2.69 Gbp, with 94.1% complete BUSCO genes found and 35 482 annotated genes, and inferred ancient gene duplications compared to existing Ranunculales genomes. The genomic information presented here will enable advanced evolutionary-functional analyses for the species complex, but also for the genus and beyond Ranunculaceae.

Ranunculus↗

PubMed2025

Genome-wide phylogeny reshapes our understanding of the evolution of deep-sea dragonfishes, bristlemouths, viperfishes, and allies (Stomiiformes).

BACKGROUND: The evolutionary relationships within Stomiiformes, a diverse order of deep-sea fishes dominating the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones, remain contentious due to conflicting morphological and molecular evidence. These fishes, comprising 464 species across four traditionally recognized families (Gonostomatidae, Sternoptychidae, Phosichthyidae, and Stomiidae), exhibit remarkable adaptations such as bioluminescence, ultra-black pigmentation, and extreme jaw morphologies. Their global abundance and ecological significance, including contributions to the biological carbon pump, underscores the need to resolve their phylogeny amid escalating threats from climate change and human activities. RESULTS: We conducted the most comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of Stomiiformes to date, integrating 936 nuclear loci from 60 species and an expanded dataset of 135 species with mitochondrial sequences from publicly available repositories such as the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) database. We used maximum likelihood and coalescent-based approaches to assess family monophyly and relationships, including extensive quality control to address contamination in public databases. Our analyses reveal unstable tree topologies and complex evolutionary histories that challenge traditional classifications, while our quality control analyses identified 29% of BOLD sequences as misidentified or contaminated, emphasizing rigorous curation for deep-sea taxa. Congruent with a recent taxonomic treatment of Stomiiformes, the families Phosichthyidae and Gonostomatidae exhibit polyphyly and paraphyly, respectively, while subfamilies within Stomiidae are extensively non-monophyletic, leading us to recommend their abandonment. We propose the recognition of eight monophyletic families: Vinciguerriidae, Diplophidae, Gonostomatidae, Yarrellidae, Ichthyococcidae, Phosichthyidae, Sternoptychidae, and Stomiidae, supported by robust molecular and morphological evidence. CONCLUSIONS: This revised classification reflects the morphological and ecological diversity of Stomiiformes, aligning with their evolutionary diversification in the deep sea. Our phylogenomic framework resolves longstanding systematic uncertainties and highlights the power of genome-wide data in tackling taxonomically challenging clades. These findings provide a foundation for understanding deep-sea fish diversification and assessing the potential ecological drivers for their evolutionary diversity.

Animals↗