TL;DR: Results suggest that the different levels of organizational and developmental complexity found in the Volvocaceae represent alternative stable states, among which evolutionary transitions have occurred several times during the phylogenetic history of this group.
Abstract: Phylogenetic studies of approximately 2,000 bases of sequence from the large and small nuclear-encoded ribosomal RNAs are used to investigate the origins of the genus Volvox. The colonial and multicellular genera currently placed in the family Volvocaceae form a monophyletic group that is significantly closer phylogenetically to Chlamydomonas reinhardtii than it is to the other unicellular green flagellates that were tested, including Chlamydomonas eugametos, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, and Haematococcus lacustris. Statistical analysis of 251 phylogenetically informative nucleotide positions rejects the "volvocine lineage" hypothesis, which postulates a monophyletic evolutionary progression from unicellular organisms (such as Chlamydomonas), through colonial organisms (e.g., Gonium, Pandorina, Eudorina, and Pleodorina) demonstrating increasing size, cell number, and tendency toward cellular differentiation, to multicellular organisms having fully differentiated somatic and reproductive cells (in the genus Volvox). The genus Volvox appears not to be monophyletic. Volvox capensis falls outside a lineage containing other representatives of Volvox (V. aureus, V. carteri, and V. obversus), and both of these Volvox lineages are more closely related to certain colonial genera than they are to each other. This implies either a diphyletic origin of Volvox from different colonial volvocacean ancestors, a phylogenetic derivation of some of the colonial genera from a multicellular (i.e., Volvox) ancestor, or both. Considered together with previously published observations, these results suggest that the different levels of organizational and developmental complexity found in the Volvocaceae represent alternative stable states, among which evolutionary transitions have occurred several times during the phylogenetic history of this group.
TL;DR: The phylogenetic tree suggests which classical taxonomic characters are most misleading and provides a framework for molecular studies of the cell cycle-related and other alterations that have engendered diversity in both vegetative and sexual colony patterns in this classical family.
Abstract: Sequence analysis based on multiple isolates representing essentially all genera and species of the classic family Volvocaeae has clarified their phylogenetic relationships. Cloned internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS-1 and ITS-2, flanking the 5.8S gene of the nuclear ribosomal gene cistrons) were aligned, guided by ITS transcript secondary structural features, and subjected to parsimony and neighbor joining distance analysis. Results confirm the notion of a single common ancestor, and Chlamydomonas reinharditii alone among all sequenced green unicells is most similar. Interbreeding isolates were nearest neighbors on the evolutionary tree in all cases. Some taxa, at whatever level, prove to be clades by sequence comparisons, but others provide striking exceptions. The morphological species Pandorina morum, known to be widespread and diverse in mating pairs, was found to encompass all of the isolates of the four species of Volvulina. Platydorina appears to have originated early and not to fall within the genus Eudorina, with which it can sometimes be confused by morphology. The four species of Pleodorina appear variously associated with Eudorina examples. Although the species of Volvox are each clades, the genus Volvox is not. The conclusions confirm and extend prior, more limited, studies on nuclear SSU and LSU rDNA genes and plastid-encoded rbcL and atpB. The phylogenetic tree suggests which classical taxonomic characters are most misleading and provides a framework for molecular studies of the cell cycle-related and other alterations that have engendered diversity in both vegetative and sexual colony patterns in this classical family.
TL;DR: This chapter presents a summary of the morphological and biochemical evidence that supports the volvocine-lineage hypothesis and describes attempts to evaluate the validity of this hypothesis objectively with molecular phylogenetic methods.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a summary of the morphological and biochemical evidence that supports the volvocine-lineage hypothesis. It describes attempts to evaluate the validity of this hypothesis objectively with molecular phylogenetic methods. The chapter also reviews advances that have occurred in three areas of Volvox research:(1) the genetic and molecular control of germ or soma differentiation, (2) the mechanism of action of the sexual pheromone, and (3) the comparative anatomy and evolution of selected structural genes of Volvox and Chlamydomonas. The volvocine algae (Chlamydomonas and the members of the family Volvocaceae) all have a fundamentally similar and distinctive pattern of subcellular organization. However, the volvocine algae can be conceptually lined up in a series (Chlamydomonas, Gonium, Pandorina, Eudorina, Pleodorina, and Volvox), in which there is a progressive increase in each of the parameters—cell number, organismic size, tendency for some cells to differentiate terminally as somatic cells, and ratio of somatic-cell number to reproductive-cell number. The volvocine lineage hypothesis postulates that this conceptual series may actually reflect the evolutionary history of the group. The aspect of Volvox carteri development that is most interesting from an evolutionary genetic standpoint is the aspect that most clearly differentiates it from other genera of volvocine algae, and from most other species of Volvox, i.e., the early and complete segregation of separate germ and somatic-cell lineages.
TL;DR: The analysis suggests that the volvocacean genera Eudorina and Pleodorina are paraphyletic groups, respectively, and that the monotypic genus Yamagishiella has no autapomorphic characters and represents primitive features of the anisogamous and oogamous genera of the Volvocaceae.
Abstract: A cladistic analysis was used to deduce the phylogenetic relationships within the colonial Volvocales. Forty-one pairs of characters related to gross morphology and ultrastructure of vegetative colonies as well as asexual and sexual reproduction were analyzed based on parsimony, using the PAUP 3.0 computer program, for 25 species belonging to nine volvocacean and goniacean genera of the colonial Volvocales. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dangeard was the outgroup. The strict consensus tree indicated the presence of two monophyletic groups, one composed of all the volvocacean species analyzed in this study and the other containing the goniacean species except for the four-celled species Gonium sociale (Dujardin) Warming. In addition, these two groups constitute a large monophyletic group, to which G. sociale is a sister group. A new combination Tetrabaena socialis (Dujardin) Nozaki et Itoh and a new family Tetrabaenaceae Nozaki et Itoh are thus proposed for G. sociale. In addition, the analysis suggests that the volvocacean genera Eudorina and Pleodorina are paraphyletic groups, respectively, and that the monotypic genus Yamagishiella has no autapomorphic characters and represents primitive features of the anisogamous and oogamous genera of the Volvocaceae. Phylogenetic relationships within the Volvocaceae and the Goniaceae, as well as the various modes of sexual reproduction exhibited by these organisms, are discussed on the basis of the analysis.
TL;DR: Vegetative colonies of Pandorina unicocca Rayburn et Starr, four taxa of Eudorina [E.
Abstract: Vegetative colonies of Pandorina unicocca Rayburn et Starr, four taxa of Eudorina [E. elegans Ehrenberg (type species), E. illinoisensis (Kofoid) Pascher, E. unicocca G.M. Smith var. unicocca andE. unicocca var. peripheralis Goldstein] and two species of Pleodorina [Po californicaShaw (type species) and P. indica (Iyengar) Nozaki] were examined with electron microscopy in order to characterize the structure of the extracellular matrix. Each cell of the colonies of all the taxa examined was tightly enclosed by a dense fibrillar zone of the extracellular matrix (cellular envelope) with sparse fibrillar material filling the space outside the cellular envelopes within the tripartite colonial boundary of the matrix. This arrangement is essentially different from that of Pandorina morum (O.F. Miiller) Bory (type species) and P. colemaniae Nozaki. As Eudorina and Pleodorina both have anisogamous sexual reproduction with sperm packets (bundles of male gametes), a new genus, Yamagishiella Nozaki, is propo...