scholarly journals Museomics: Phylogenomics of the Moth Family Epicopeiidae (Lepidoptera) Using Target Enrichment

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsa Call ◽  
Christoph Mayer ◽  
Victoria Twort ◽  
Lars Dietz ◽  
Niklas Wahlberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Billions of specimens can be found in natural history museum collections around the world, holding potential molecular secrets to be unveiled. Among them are intriguing specimens of rare families of moths that, while represented in morphology-based works, are only beginning to be included in genomic studies: Pseudobistonidae, Sematuridae, and Epicopeiidae. These three families are part of the superfamily Geometroidea, which has recently been defined based on molecular data. Here we chose to focus on these three moth families to explore the suitability of a genome reduction method, target enrichment (TE), on museum specimens. Through this method, we investigated the phylogenetic relationships of these families of Lepidoptera, in particular the family Epicopeiidae. We successfully sequenced 25 samples, collected between 1892 and 2001. We use 378 nuclear genes to reconstruct a phylogenetic hypothesis from the maximum likelihood analysis of a total of 36 different species, including 19 available transcriptomes. The hypothesis that Sematuridae is the sister group of Epicopeiidae + Pseudobistonidae had strong support. This study thus adds to the growing body of work, demonstrating that museum specimens can successfully contribute to molecular phylogenetic studies.

IMA Fungus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Kaczmarek ◽  
Mieczysława I. Boguś

AbstractThe relationship between entomopathogenic fungi and their insect hosts is a classic example of the co-evolutionary arms race between pathogen and target host. The present review describes the entomopathogenic potential of Chytridiomycota and Blastocladiomycota fungi, and two groups of fungal allies: Oomycota and Microsporidia. The Oomycota (water moulds) are considered as a model biological control agent of mosquito larvae. Due to their shared ecological and morphological similarities, they had long been considered a part of the fungal kingdom; however, phylogenetic studies have since placed this group within the Straminipila. The Microsporidia are parasites of economically-important insects, including grasshoppers, lady beetles, bumblebees, colorado potato beetles and honeybees. They have been found to display some fungal characteristics, and phylogenetic studies suggest that they are related to fungi, either as a basal branch or sister group. The Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota, named the lower fungi, historically were described together; however, molecular phylogenetic and ultrastructural research has classified them in their own phylum. They are considered parasites of ants, and of the larval stages of black flies, mosquitoes and scale insects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryutaro Goto ◽  
James Monnington ◽  
Marija Sciberras ◽  
Isao Hirabayashi ◽  
Greg W. Rouse

Echiura (commonly called spoon worms) are derived annelids that have an unsegmented sausage-shaped body with a highly extensible anterior end (i.e. a proboscis). Echiura currently contains two superfamilies: Echiurioidea (with Echiuridae, Urechidae and Thalassematidae) and Bonellioidea (with Bonelliidae, and Ikedidae). Ikedidae contains only Ikeda, which is distinctive in having a huge trunk, a highly elongate proboscis with stripes or dots, and numerous gonoducts. A recent molecular phylogeny of Echiura recovered Ikedidae as the sister group to Bonelliidae. However, due to relatively low support values for the monophyly of Bonelliidae, this relationship remains problematic. In this study, we reinvestigated the relationship of Bonelliidae and Ikedidae using an expanded dataset with more taxa and genes. In contrast to the previous results, our analyses strongly support that Ikeda is nested within Bonelliidae due to the placement of Maxmuelleria. On the basis of this result, we synonymise Ikedidae with Bonelliidae and transfer Ikeda to the latter, the diagnosis of which is amended. In addition, we synonymise Urechidae with its sister group Echiuridae because they share the synapomorphy of having anal chaetae rings. Furthermore, considering that recent phylogenetic studies have consistently recovered Echiura as the sister group to Capitelliidae within Annelida, we drop the rank of the echiuran clade to family-level and propose a revised classification: Thalassematidae with two subfamilies, Thalassematinae (with two tribes Echiurini and Thalassematini) and Bonelliinae. In addition, we identified a sample collected from the deep sea (~1820 m) of Monterey Bay, California, based on its molecular data. This terminal unexpectedly formed the sister group to the eight genera of Thalassematini, most members of which are inhabitants of littoral zones.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 297 (2) ◽  
pp. 139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Sletten Bjorå ◽  
MARTE ELDEN ◽  
INGER NORDAL ◽  
ANNE K. BRYSTING ◽  
TESFAYE AWAS ◽  
...  

Sister group relations of Ethiopian species of Anthericum and Chlorophytum and variation patterns in the C. gallabatense and C. comosum complexes were studied using molecular phylogenetic analyses, morphometrics, and scanning electron microscopy of seed surfaces. Results indicate that molecular data largely support previous morphological conclusions, and that speciation has occurred in Ethiopia at least three times in Anthericum and repeatedly within different subclades of Chlorophytum. Areas particularly rich in endemic species are the lowland area around Bale Mountains in SE Ethiopia and in the Beninshangul Gumuz regional state in W Ethiopia near the border to Sudan. A new species, Chlorophytum mamillatum Elden & Nordal, is described, and the names C. tordense and C. tetraphyllum are re-instated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1786) ◽  
pp. 20140479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximilian J. Telford ◽  
Christopher J. Lowe ◽  
Christopher B. Cameron ◽  
Olga Ortega-Martinez ◽  
Jochanan Aronowicz ◽  
...  

While some aspects of the phylogeny of the five living echinoderm classes are clear, the position of the ophiuroids (brittlestars) relative to asteroids (starfish), echinoids (sea urchins) and holothurians (sea cucumbers) is controversial. Ophiuroids have a pluteus-type larva in common with echinoids giving some support to an ophiuroid/echinoid/holothurian clade named Cryptosyringida. Most molecular phylogenetic studies, however, support an ophiuroid/asteroid clade (Asterozoa) implying either convergent evolution of the pluteus or reversals to an auricularia-type larva in asteroids and holothurians. A recent study of 10 genes from four of the five echinoderm classes used ‘phylogenetic signal dissection’ to separate alignment positions into subsets of (i) suboptimal, heterogeneously evolving sites (invariant plus rapidly changing) and (ii) the remaining optimal, homogeneously evolving sites. Along with most previous molecular phylogenetic studies, their set of heterogeneous sites, expected to be more prone to systematic error, support Asterozoa. The homogeneous sites, in contrast, support an ophiuroid/echinoid grouping, consistent with the cryptosyringid clade, leading them to posit homology of the ophiopluteus and echinopluteus. Our new dataset comprises 219 genes from all echinoderm classes; analyses using probabilistic Bayesian phylogenetic methods strongly support Asterozoa. The most reliable, slowly evolving quartile of genes also gives highest support for Asterozoa; this support diminishes in second and third quartiles and the fastest changing quartile places the ophiuroids close to the root. Using phylogenetic signal dissection, we find heterogenous sites support an unlikely grouping of Ophiuroidea + Holothuria while homogeneous sites again strongly support Asterozoa. Our large and taxonomically complete dataset finds no support for the cryptosyringid hypothesis; in showing strong support for the Asterozoa, our preferred topology leaves the question of homology of pluteus larvae open.


2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall L. Small ◽  
Richard C. Cronn ◽  
Jonathan F. Wendel

Molecular data have had a profound impact on the field of plant systematics, and the application of DNA-sequence data to phylogenetic problems is now routine. The majority of data used in plant molecular phylogenetic studies derives from chloroplast DNA and nuclear rDNA, while the use of low-copy nuclear genes has not been widely adopted. This is due, at least in part, to the greater difficulty of isolating and characterising low-copy nuclear genes relative to chloroplast and rDNA sequences that are readily amplified with universal primers. The higher level of sequence variation characteristic of low-copy nuclear genes, however, often compensates for the experimental effort required to obtain them. In this review, we briefly discuss the strengths and limitations of chloroplast and rDNA sequences, and then focus our attention on the use of low-copy nuclear sequences. Advantages of low-copy nuclear sequences include a higher rate of evolution than for organellar sequences, the potential to accumulate datasets from multiple unlinked loci, and bi-parental inheritance. Challenges intrinsic to the use of low-copy nuclear sequences include distinguishing orthologous loci from divergent paralogous loci in the same gene family, being mindful of the complications arising from concerted evolution or recombination among paralogous sequences, and the presence of intraspecific, intrapopulational and intraindividual polymorphism. Finally, we provide a detailed protocol for the isolation, characterisation and use of low-copy nuclear sequences for phylogenetic studies.


Nematology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Pedram ◽  
Ali Roshan-Bakhsh ◽  
Ebrahim Pourjam ◽  
Mohammad Reza Atighi ◽  
Wilfrida Decraemer ◽  
...  

Trichodorus variabilis, recovered from three separate locations in natural forests of northern Iran, was studied using morphological, morphometric and molecular data. Variation in position of the ventromedian cervical papillae (CP1 and CP2) with respect to the onchiostyle base in the resting position, and spicule characters (having or lacking striation in distal blade region and bristles in proximal blade region) were observed. Variation was also observed in the nature of the pharyngo-intestinal junction (offset to slight overlapping). The secretory-excretory pore of females also showed slight variation in placement. Molecular phylogenetic studies, using partial 28S rDNA D2-D3 sequences of three studied populations and one sequenced isolate of the species from Greece, revealed T. variabilis has variation in the sequences of this genomic fragment. The similarity percent of four sequences ranged from 96.7 to 99.7%. The species was found for the first time outside of Greece, the country from which it was originally described. A newly recovered population of T. persicus, originally described from Iran, was also included in the molecular phylogenetic analyses.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4264 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDSON H. L. PEREIRA ◽  
ROBERTO E. REIS

A phylogenetic study of the Loricariidae with emphasis on the Neoplecostominae is presented based on a maximum parsimony analysis of 268 phenotypic characters encompassing osteology, arthrology, and external morphology. Results support previous hypotheses of the monophyly of the Neoplecostominae and each of the included genera: Hirtella, Isbrueckerichthys, Kronichthys, Neoplecostomus, Pareiorhaphis, and Pareiorhina. In addition, previously undiscovered diversity was revealed within the subfamily as an additional genus-level taxon, herein described as Euryochus. Relationships among neoplecostomine genera are: (Kronichthys (Euryochus ((Hirtella + Pareiorhaphis) (Pareiorhina (Isbrueckerichthys + Neoplecostomus))))). Additional undescribed diversity was also detected among most neoplecostomine genera and the Hypoptopomatinae. In addition, recently discovered genera Nannoplecostomus and Microplecostomus were included in the analysis, and were identified as sequential sister-taxa to Neoplecostominae + Hypoptopomatinae, which are currently not included in any subfamily and regarded as incertae sedis in Loricariidae. The three species of Lithogenes were included in an encompassing phylogenetic analysis for the first time, and were identified as a monophyletic unit and sister group to all remaining loricariids. The other loricariid subfamilies were also corroborated as monophyletic, and presented the following interrelationships (Lithogeninae (Delturinae (Loricariinae (Hypostominae (Nannoplecostomus (Microplecostomus (Hypoptopomatinae + Neoplecostominae). The Neoplecostominae and its genera are phylogenetically diagnosed, and hypothesized relationships are compared to those of previous morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Topik Hidayat ◽  
Adi Pancoro

<p>Early information<br />resulted from molecular phylogenetic studies of many important<br />ornamental crops is often less attention to many<br />growers and farmers. Phylogenetics is one of the most preferable<br />method in systematics to reconstruct evolutionary<br />relationships of groups of biological organisms in order to<br />understand their biodiversities. This has been revolutionized<br />by DNA sequences data. In this method, a group of organisms<br />that shares many identical characteristics are considered<br />to be closely related; deriving from a common<br />ancestor and is assumed to have similar genetic patterns<br />and biochemical properties. By these basic principles,<br />molecular phylogenetics plays important roles in revealing a<br />basic knowledge on pattern of relationships to which<br />genetic resources can be improved. Over the past decade,<br />botanists have done several thousand phylogenetic analyses<br />based on molecular data of economically and horticulturally<br />important crops. Orchids are the best example for this.<br />There is no doubt that most orchid plants had played roles in<br />horticulture and hybridization. At present, many infrageneric<br />and intergeneric hybrids are available commercially. Successful<br />hybridization can be achieved if two or more individual<br />plants understudy are closely related in respect to their<br />genetics and evolution.</p>


Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2603 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. TERRY CHESSER ◽  
CAROL K. L. YEUNG ◽  
CHENG-TE YAO ◽  
XIU-HUA TIAN ◽  
SHOU-HSIEN LI

Spoonbills (genus Platalea) are a small group of wading birds, generally considered to constitute the subfamily Plataleinae (Aves: Threskiornithidae). We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among the six species of spoonbills using variation in sequences of the mitochondrial genes ND2 and cytochrome b (total 1796 bp). Topologies of phylogenetic trees reconstructed using maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony, and Bayesian analyses were virtually identical and supported monophyly of the spoonbills. Most relationships within Platalea received strong support: P. minor and P. regia were closely related sister species, P. leucorodia was sister to the minor-regia clade, and P. alba was sister to the minor-regia-leucorodia clade. Relationships of P. flavipes and P. ajaja were less well resolved: these species either formed a clade that was sister to the four-species clade, or were successive sisters to this clade. This phylogeny is consistent with ideas of relatedness derived from spoonbill morphology. Our limited sampling of the Threskiornithinae (ibises), the putative sister group to the spoonbills, indicated that this group is paraphyletic, in agreement with previous molecular data; this suggests that separation of the Threskiornithidae into subfamilies Plataleinae and Threskiornithinae may not be warranted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hernán Darío Suárez ◽  
Camila Robayo ◽  
Xavier Marquínez ◽  
Lauren Raz

Introducction: Gaiadendron punctatum is a hemiparasitic species of Loranthaceae (Tribe Gaiadendreae) that is widely distributed in mountainous regions of Central and South America. Embryological and phylogenetic studies in the family indicate a trend towards reduction of the gynoecium and ovules, the morphology of which supports the current circumscription of Tribe Gaiadendreae (Gaiadendron and Atkinsonia). Molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that Nuytsia, Atkinsonia and Gaiadendron diverged successively, forming a grade at the base of the Loranthaceae, but support values are low. Objetive: In the present study, the floral anatomy of Gaiadendron punctatum was investigated in order to provide additional data to permit comparisons among the three basal-most genera in the Loranthaceae and reevaluate their relationships. Methods: Flowers of G. punctatum were collected at different developmental stages and serial sections were prepared and analyzed by light microscopy. Results: Inflorescence development is acropetal; the flowers are bisexual with an inferior ovary surmounted by a calyculus, a ring-shaped structure lacking vascular tissue; the ovary is comprised of seven basal locules, each with an ategmic, tenuinucellate ovule. Above the locules is a mamelon that is fused with the adjacent tissues. The androecium is comprised of seven epipetalous stamens, the anthers with fibrous endothecium dehiscence through a single longitudinal slit, releasing tricolpated pollen. Conclusions: The results of this study show that Gaiadendron and Atkinsonia share versatile, dorsifixed anthers, while Gaiadendron and Nuytsia share the same mode of anther dehiscence. On the other hand, Gaiadendron shares with members of Tribe Elytrantheae an amyliferous mamelon and an unvascularized calyculus. Combined phylogenetic analyses of morphological and molecular data are desirable to determine whether Tribe Gaiadendreae comprises a clade, a grade or if the two genera are more distantly related.


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