Dr. Kevin Kocot
Associate Professor & Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, University of Alabama & Alabama Museum of Natural History
PI: Prof. Kara Layton
12 to 1 PM
IB 140 & Zoom
Title
Sweat the Small Stuff: Biodiversity and Systematics of Itty Bitty Marine Invertebrates
Abstract
Research in the Kocot Lab focuses on the extraordinary—yet often overlooked—diversity of marine invertebrates so tiny that they live in between grains of sand (meiofauna). We aim to document this diversity and understand how it evolved by combining classical invertebrate zoology and phylogenomics. Our team conducts integrative taxonomy and systematics research on poorly known lineages such as Solenogastres (Mollusca: Aplacophora) using histology, light and electron microscopy, micro-CT, and DNA barcoding. In parallel, we are leveraging commercially available Phi29 DNA polymerase for whole-genome amplification using as little material as just one-half of a C. elegans specimen. Amplifying high-molecular-weight DNA obtained directly from lysed cells, this approach generates micrograms of DNA fragments >10 Kbp suitable for PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing. Resulting high-quality assemblies from previously unsequenced taxa are opening new windows into deep metazoan phylogeny, particularly within the morphologically diverse clade Lophotrochozoa (molluscs, annelids, flatworms, rotifers, etc.). Despite these technological advances, careful morphological study and taxonomic expertise remain essential. Many of the most ecologically important meiofaunal groups are thought to have far more undescribed than described species, and the number of experts able to identify them continues to decline. By integrating modern genomics with classical taxonomy, we show how new tools can enhance understanding of animal evolutionary history but also underscore that sustained investment in organismal expertise is critical to understanding life’s complexity and diversity in a phylogenetic context.