Barcelona scientist among researchers uncovering evolutionary code of mollusks

An international team of scientists, including Professor Juan Moles, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBIO) at the University of Barcelona (UB), has reconstructed the evolutionary history of mollusks in a new study.

Published on the cover of Science, the research resolves a long-standing scientific debate and provides new insights into the evolutionary history of mollusks.

In this study, the team analyzed the genomes of 77 mollusk species representing eight major groups worldwide, including deep-sea mollusks.

Mollusks are one of the most diverse zoological groups on the planet and include snails, clams, squids, or octopi.

These organisms can thrive in a wide variety of habitats, including seabed, coastal, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems.

Among the species studied is Fustiaria rubescens, a type of scaphopod collected from the Bay of Roses on the Northern Catalan Girona coast.

The findings confirm that the mollusks split early on into two main groups: one of more spicular species and another of more traditional mollusks, such as snails.

"We can now provide a clearer picture of the probable ancestor of all mollusks, from the garden snail to a deep-sea octopus,” says researcher Zeyuan Chen, first author of the paper and a bioinformatician at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt in Germany, in a shared statement to the UB.

Professor Juan Moles adds an explanation as to why the findings on “one of the most evolutionary successful groups of animals on Earth” are so important:

“Understanding mollusks helps us to start answering big questions to understand how life adapts and diversifies over time.”

The findings also open the door to biotechnology, conservation, and biomedicine applications, as some species are models for studying human health and disease.