@article {1493, title = {Evolutionary Analysis of Mitogenomes from Parasitic and Free-Living Flatworms}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0120081}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, address = {San Francisco, CA USA}, abstract = {

Mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) are useful and relatively accessible sources of molecular data to explore and understand the evolutionary history and relationships of eukaryotic organisms across diverse taxonomic levels. The availability of complete mitogenomes from Platyhelminthes is limited; of the 40 or so published most are from parasitic flatworms (Neodermata). Here, we present the mitogenomes of two free-living flatworms (Tricladida): the complete genome of the freshwater species Crenobia alpina (Planariidae) and a nearly complete genome of the land planarian Obama sp. (Geoplanidae). Moreover, we have reanotated the published mitogenome of the species Dugesia japonica (Dugesiidae). This contribution almost doubles the total number of mtDNAs published for Tricladida, a species-rich group including model organisms and economically important invasive species. We took the opportunity to conduct comparative mitogenomic analyses between available free-living and selected parasitic flatworms in order to gain insights into the putative effect of life cycle on nucleotide composition through mutation and natural selection. Unexpectedly, we did not find any molecular hallmark of a selective relaxation in mitogenomes of parasitic flatworms; on the contrary, three out of the four studied free-living triclad mitogenomes exhibit higher A+T content and selective relaxation levels. Additionally, we provide new and valuable molecular data to develop markers for future phylogenetic studies on planariids and geoplanids.

}, isbn = {1932-6203}, url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4368550/}, author = {Sol{\`a}, Eduard and {\'A}lvarez-Presas, Marta and Fr{\'\i}as-L{\'o}pez, Cristina and Littlewood, D Timothy J and Rozas, Julio and Riutort, Marta}, editor = {Escriva, Hector} } @article {1492, title = {The taxonomic status of Dugesia biblica from Israel and Turkey (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Dugesiidae)}, journal = {ZooKeys}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {1 - 12}, publisher = {Pensoft Publishers}, abstract = {

The taxonomic status of Dugesia biblica (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Dugesiidae) from Israel and Turkey is problematic due to its morphological similarity with Dugesia sicula since these nominal species present overlapping characters. In this study we analyzed histological preparations of specimens of these two nominal species and also compared mitochondrial COI gene sequences from Israeli populations to the already known haplotype composition of Dugesia sicula. We concluded that these animals belong to the same species and therefore we consider Dugesia biblica to be a junior synonym of Dugesia sicula. This implies that the distribution range of Dugesia sicula is even wider than previously thought, and that the species is present all around the Mediterranean Basin and on many of its islands.

}, isbn = {1313-29891313-2970}, url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4467178/}, author = {Sol{\`a}, Eduard and Sluys, Ronald and Segev, Ori and Blaustein, Leon and Riutort, Marta} }