Research Project Blog #1 (Individual)

Research Project Blog #1 (individual blog) By Punyanith Tangsiririuangrit

In this project, My group and I will examine 6 different muscle proteins: shrimp, scallop, squid, mussel, oyster, and clam to compare and determine their connections by using the protein gel electrophoresis.

One of the six samples of protein is an arthropod (shrimp), which is considered the outgroup. The rest of the sample is in the Phylum Mollusca, part of the taxon Lophotrochozoa. Sample in the Phylum Mollusca include: squid, scallop, clam, oyster, and mussel. Considering the morphological views of the Phylum Mollusca, squid would be the most distantly related organism from the other molluscs. To support this claim, an article called, "The Cephalopoda Squids, octopuses, nautilus, and ammonites” showed that squid is the only organism in the Phylum Mollusca that belongs to the class, Cephalopoda. Clam, oyster, and mussels instead belong to the Bivalvia class, which are sessile while “Cephalopoda are the most intelligent, most mobile, and the largest of all molluscs” (Vendetti, 2006). Therefore, squid should be located further than the four other samples on the phylogenetic tree.

Reference:

Jann Vendetti, 2006. The Cephalopoda Squids, octopuses, nautilus, and ammonites. University of California Museum of Paleontology. [cited 2017 Feb 9]. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/inverts/mollusca/cephalopoda.php