Poriferan mtDNA and Animal Phylogeny Based on Mitochondrial Gene Arrangements

Phylogenetic relationships among the metazoan phyla are the subject of an ongoing controversy. Analysis of mitochondrial gene arrangements is a powerful tool to investigate these relationships; however, its previous application outside of individual animal phyla has been hampered by the lack of informative out-group data. To address this shortcoming, we determined complete mitochondrial DNA sequences for the demosponges Geodia neptuni and Tethya actinia, two representatives of the most basal animal phylum, the Porifera. With sponges as an outgroup, we investigated phylogenetic relationships of nine bilaterian phyla using both breakpoint analysis of global mitochondrial gene arrangements and maximum parsimony analysis of mitochondrial gene adjacencies. Our results provide strong support for a group that includes protostome (but not deuterostome) coelomate, pseudocoelomate, and acoelomate animals, thus clearly rejecting the Coelomata hypothesis. Two other groups of bilaterian animals, Lophotrochozoa and Ambulacraria, are also supported by our analyses. However, due to the remarkable stability of mitochondrial gene arrangements in Deuterostomia and the Ecdysozoa, conclusions on their evolutionary history cannot be drawn.