DNA barcoding and the differentiation between North American and West European Phormia regina (Diptera, Calliphoridae, Chrysomyinae)

Abstract

Phormia regina (the black fly) is a common Holarctic blow fly species which serves as a primary indicator taxon to estimate minimal post mortem intervals. It is also a major research model in physiological and neurological studies on insect feeding. Previous studies have shown a sequence divergence of up to 4.3% in the mitochondrial COI gene between W European and N American P. regina populations. Here, we DNA barcoded P. regina specimens from six N American and 17 W European populations and confirmed a mean sequence divergence of ca. 4% between the populations of the two continents, while sequence divergence within each continent was a ten-fold lower. Comparable mean mtDNA sequence divergences were observed for COII (3.7%) and cyt b (5.3%), but mean divergence was lower for 16S (0.4–0.6%). Intercontinental divergence at nuclear DNA was very low (≤ 0.1% for both 28S and ITS2), and we did not detect any morphological differentiation between N American and W European specimens. Therefore, we consider the strong differentiation at COI, COII and cyt b as intraspecific mtDNA sequence divergence that should be taken into account when using P. regina in forensic casework or experimental research.

DNA-barcoding of forensically important blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in the Caribbean Region

“…We propose using the nuclear internal transcribed spacer ITS2 as a second barcoding locus for taxonomic species determinations in calliphorids as suggested by GilArriortua et al (2014) . Although evaluations of ITS2 as unique identification marker have limitations for some taxa ( Agnarsson, 2010 ), several studies have shown the potential application of ITS2 for blowfly species identification ( Jordaens et al, 2013a ; Nelson, Wallman & Dowton, 2007 ; Nelson, Wallman & Dowton, 2008 , Song, Wang & Liang, 2008 ; Yusseff-Vanegas & Agnarsson, 2016 ). We expect a combination of barcodes from the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes to offer a general, simple and reliable way of identifying forensically important insects, even problematic sister species, as successfully done in certain other arthropod groups ( Anslan & Tedersoo, 2015 ; Cao et al, 2016 ).…”

A DNA barcode library for 5,200 German flies and midges (Insecta: Diptera) and its implications for metabarcoding‐based biomonitoring

“…Previous studies have reported on barcoding results for Coleoptera (Hendrich et al, 2015;Raupach, Hannig, Moriniere, & Hendrich, 2016;Raupach, Hannig, Morinière, & Hendrich, 2018;Rulik et al, 2017), Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera , Heteroptera (Havemann et al, 2018;Raupach et al, 2014), Hymenoptera (Schmid-Egger et al, 2019;Schmidt, Schmid-Egger, Morinière, Haszprunar, & Hebert, 2015;Schmidt et al, 2017), Lepidoptera Hausmann, Haszprunar, Segerer, et al, 2011), Neuroptera , Orthoptera (Hawlitschek et al, 2017), Araneae and Opiliones , and Myriapoda (Spelda, Reip, Oliveira Biener, & Melzer, 2011;Wesener et al, 2015). Concerning DNA barcoding studies performed for Diptera, no comprehensive study encompassing this entire highly diverse order has been published, but data have been used to revise smaller units thereof: for example, for Calliphoridae (Jordaens et al, 2013;Nelson, Wallman, & Dowton, 2007;Reibe, Schmitz, & Madea, 2009), Ceratopogonidae (Stur & Borkent, 2014), Chironomidae (Carew, Pettigrove, Cox, & Hoffmann, 2007;Carew, Pettigrove, & Hoffmann, 2005;Cranston et al, 2013;Ekrem, Stur, & Hebert, 2010;Ekrem, Willassen, & Stur, 2007;Montagna, Mereghetti, Lencioni, & Rossaro, 2016;Pfenninger, Nowak, Kley, Steinke, & Streit, 2007;Sinclair & Gresens, 2008;Stur & Ekrem, 2011), Culicidae (Ashfaq et al, 2014;Cywinska, Hunter, & Hebert, 2006;Kumar, Rajavel, Natarajan, & Jambulingam, 2007;Versteirt et al, 2015;, Hybotidae…”

Using bacterial and necrophagous insect dynamics for post-mortem interval estimation during cold season: Novel case study in Romania

“…Some of these studies also identified decomposition stages and the corresponding role of necrophagous insects [25,31]. These approaches can be complemented with molecular biology, such as cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) DNA barcoding [32][33][34][35][36], which can facilitate an accurate and reliable identification of forensically important insects from human or animal carcasses.…”