Phylogenomic Resolution of Paleozoic Divergences in Harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) via Analysis of Next-Generation Transcriptome Data

Next-generation sequencing technologies are rapidly transforming molecular systematic studies of non-model animal taxa. The arachnid order Opiliones (commonly known as “harvestmen”) includes more than 6,400 described species placed into four well-supported lineages (suborders). Fossil plus molecular clock evidence indicates that these lineages were diverging in the late Silurian to mid-Carboniferous, with some fossil harvestmen representing the earliest known land animals. Perhaps because of this ancient divergence, phylogenetic resolution of subordinal interrelationships within Opiliones has been difficult. We present the first phylogenomics analysis for harvestmen, derived from comparative RNA-Seq data for eight species representing all suborders. Over 30 gigabases of original Illumina short-read data were used in de novo assemblies, resulting in 50–80,000 transcripts per taxon. Transcripts were compared to published scorpion and tick genomics data, and a stringent filtering process was used to identify over 350 putatively single-copy, orthologous protein-coding genes shared among taxa. Phylogenetic analyses using various partitioning strategies, data coding schemes, and analytical methods overwhelmingly support the “classical” hypothesis of Opiliones relationships, including the higher-level clades Palpatores and Phalangida. Relaxed molecular clock analyses using multiple alternative fossil calibration strategies corroborate ancient divergences within Opiliones that are possibly deeper than the recorded fossil record indicates. The assembled data matrices, comprising genes that are conserved, highly expressed, and varying in length and phylogenetic informativeness, represent an important resource for future molecular systematic studies of Opiliones and other arachnid groups.