EAPSI: Evolutionary Effects of Mutualism in Gobiid-Alpheid Communities of Taiwan

Mccraney William T, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports research aimed at addressing a gap in evolutionary biology pertaining to the (co)diversifying effects of mutualism among hosts and their free-living symbionts using Gobiid-Alpheid communities as a model system. Gobiid fishes and Alpheid shrimps participate in a remarkable mutualistic relationship in the Indo-West Pacific where the shrimp provides a home for the fish in its burrow and the fish warns the shrimp of approaching predators. To study how mutualism has influenced the diversification, the island of Taiwan and its offshore territories provide access to suitable habitats for collecting mutualistic Gobiid-Alpheid samples. Samples will be collected by scientific diving at Dongsha Atoll National Park and Kenting National Park, and species identification will be conducted at the National Museum of Natural Sciences. The research will be conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Keryea Soong of National Sun Yat-sen University and Dongsha Atoll Research Station, an expert in marine benthic invertebrates with deep knowledge of fish assemblages at the target field sites. Symbiotic relationships are known to influence host-symbiont diversification, but the evolutionary effects of mutualism in free living taxa are poorly understood. A molecular phylogenetics study of mutualistic Gobiid fish and their non-mutualistic sister taxa provides evidence that the mutualism evolved twice in the Gobiid lineage, has been conserved in both cases, and appears to be associated with greater biodiversity. However, the comparative diversity of mutualistic Gobiid fishes has not been statistically tested and nothing is known about the evolution of mutualistic Alpheid shrimps among their non-mutualistic congeners. In the current project samples will be collected by scientific diving at Dongsha Atoll National Park and Kenting National Park, sites at which twenty two mutualistic Gobiid species from eight genera have been described. Species identification will then conducted at the National Museum of Natural Sciences. Phylogenomic methods will be used to estimate time-calibrated phylogenies and (co)diversification analyses will be used to test for the influence of mutualism on the evolution of Gobiid-Alpheid biodiversity after summer research activities. This NSF EAPSI award supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.