Evolutionary relationships of trichostrongyloid nematodes (Strongylida) inferred from ribosomal DNA sequence data

Abstract

The evolutionary relationships of 21 species of trichostrongyloid nematodes were determined by use of sequence data of the second internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal DNA aligned according to secondary structure information. Irrespective of the method of analysis used, the topologies of the phylogenetic trees derived from the molecular data differed with respect to all four hypotheses proposed previously for the evolutionary relationships of the different subfamilies within the Trichostrongylidae based on morphological data. Thus, the molecular data set did not resolve the conflict between the four previous proposals for the subfamilial relationships. Nonetheless, all trees derived from the molecular data showed strong support for the exclusion of the genera Filarinema and Amidostomum from the clade containing the species within the family Trichostrongylidae. This represents a major difference from the most recent proposal of the systematics of the Trichostrongyloidea in which these two genera were included within the Trichostrongylidae. Therefore, the molecular data support an earlier systematic framework in which Filarinema and Amidostomum were considered to be sister groups of the Trichostrongyloidea.