History and

Adaptation Strategy
of Genus Frontonia

Ratih Kusuma/October 31st, 2022

Introduction
• Genus Frontonia (Ehrenberg, 1838), is rich species
genus that intensively studied its morphological
characters.

• On molecular aspect, SSU rDNA analysis showed

genus Frontonia is paraphyletic and separated into
four clade.

• Kizildag and Yildiz, (2019) suggested that genus

Frontonia were not derived from a single ancestral
lineage. Meanwhile, Sun et al., (2021)
hypothesized that the genus Frontonia may be a
monophyletic taxa and descended from a common
ancestor, but based on the currently available data,
this conclusion is premature.

(Kizildag and Yildiz, 2019)

Introduction
What is molecular dating?? technique that uses the mutation rate of
biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms
diverged. 

The molecular dating hypothesis states that DNA and protein sequences evolve at
a rate that is relatively constant over time and among different organisms.

Utility of Molecular dating on rich species genus Frontonia to explain their

evolutionary history and current phylogenetic problem.
Previous studies of molecular dating on ciliates

Spathidiid phylogeny retains the signature of one or

several rapid radiations in the Palaeozoic and a
subsequent gradual extinction that has started in the
Mesozoic.

Rajter Ľ, Vďačný P. Rapid radiation, gradual extinction and parallel evolution challenge
generic classification of spathidiid ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora). Zoologica Scripta. 2016
Mar;45(2):200-23.
Previous studies of molecular dating on ciliates

Molecular dating analyses indicated that astomes living

in annelids diverged from those inhabiting turbellarians
within about 50 Ma during the Late Cambrian and the
Upper Ordovician.

Rataj M, Vďačný P. Dawn of astome ciliates in light of morphology and time-calibrated

phylogeny of Haptophrya planariarum, an obligate endosymbiont of freshwater turbellarians.
European journal of protistology. 2018 Jun 1;64:54-71.
Material and methods

Allignment of 18s rRNA gene (51 taxa, 1591 characters) by MAFFT

Evolution model by Jmodelt test ver.2.17

XML file by BEAUti ver. 2.4.5

Divergence time prediction by BEAST ver. 2.4.5

Statistic visualization by TRACER

Obtaining an estimate of phylogenetic tree TreeAnnotator
Tree estimate visualization by Figtree

Diversification rate prediction by DivBayes 1.1 & SubT1.1

Result and Discussion
• Common ancestor shared by four
Frontonia groups and possible
ancestor penicullida members arose
and diverged around 420 Mya in the
Paleozoic era.
• The ancestors of each group or clade
genus Frontonia began to appear in
the Mesozoic era, group I and group
II shared a common ancestor at the
beginning of the Mesozoic era
(about 230 Mya) then group I began
to diverge at 172 Mya and group II
at 83 Mya.
• Group III has a common ancestor
with the closest morphological
genus to Frontonia there are genus
Apofrontonia in the early Mesozoic
era (around 185 Mya) and Group III
began to appear in 115 Mya,
• Group IV appeared on 190 Mya.
Result and Discussion

Paleozoic era is divided into the

Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian,
Devonian, and Carboniferous based on
fossils found. Cambrian period had a high
speciation event that called the Cambrian
explosion (Babcock et al., 2015)

Mass extinction event explains the

chronogram results in the Frontonia genus
which show long branches without
speciation in the Paleozoic era and based
on diversification tests which show the
Frontonia genus has a higher extinction
rate than the speciation rate (Babcock et
al., 2015; Sepkoski, 2010; Stanley and
Yang, 1994)
Result and Discussion

Species of the genus Frontonia that

survived the mass extinction existed until
the early Mesozoic era and diverged during
this era.

During the mesozoic era, the earth's

temperature began to warm so that many
organisms began to diverge at that time
such as dinoflagellates, and algae (Grzebyk
etal., 2003; Fensome et al., 1996).
Result and Discussion

Paraphyly conditions in the genus Frontonia based on ribosomal RNA due to several possibilities :

• Ribosomal RNA in the genus Frontonia had polymorphisms which causes genus Frontonia to have high molecular
diversity, in a mass extinction event natural selection occurs which causes molecular diversity to decrease and leaves
species with their polymorphisms, specieses that survived until the Mesozoic era and carried the polymorphism
character evolved into the current genus Frontonia members by retaining the polymorphism of their ancestors.

• Genus Frontonia has the same morphological adaptation strategy in different habitats. Based on the theory of neutral
morphologies by Bonner, (2013) morphological adaptation evolve within a limited range, because one or several
structures are the most favorable structures for various types of environments (Lahr et al., 2014) .
Methods (XML file by BEAUti ver. 2.4.5)

3. Select clock model

(Strict clock vs Relaxed clock (log-normal)

4. Determine clock rate and node calibration

clock rate as default

node calibration Paramecium and Tetrahymena

clade (mean 225Ma (sigma = 2)

(microfossil record of Paramecium triassicum

and Tetrahymena rostrata-like in piece of triasic
amber, upper Triassic period, 220-230 Ma)