New contributions towards the understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among economically important fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Abstract

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are a species-rich and economically important group. The phylogenetic relationships among the many taxa are still to be fully resolved and the monophyly of several groups is still to be confirmed. This paper reports a study of the phylogenetic relationships among 23 economically important tephritid species (representing several major lineages of the family) which examines the sequence of a region of mitochondrial DNA encompassing the cytb, tRNA(Ser) and ND1 genes. Substitutions characteristic of particular taxa were found that could help classify members of the family at any developmental stage. The trees obtained by the maximum parsimony, neighbour joining and maximum likelihood methods were generally compatible with present morphological classification patterns. However, the data reveal some characteristics of the phylogenetic relationships of this family that do not agree with present classifications. The results support the probable non-monophyletic nature of the subfamily Trypetinae and suggest that Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillet) is more closely related to the genus Dacus than to other species of Bactrocera.

Mitochondrial DNA sequence-based phylogenetic relationship among flesh flies of the genus Sarcophaga (Sarcophagidae: Diptera)

“…Thus, the ratio was 40:31:15:14 for COI gene and 47:31:8:14 for ND5 gene, respectively. These findings are in conformity with the findings in other dipterans (Wolstenholme and Clary 1985;Segura et al 2006). It seems that there might be some kind of selection favouring A+T nucleotides.…”

“…The size and structure of cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene has been well conserved in the animal groups analysed so far, a feature which makes it especially suitable for evolutionary studies (Lunt et al 1996). In recent years, comparison of mitochondrial DNA sequences has been used for population genetics and phylogenetic studies in several dipterans of medical, veterinary and economic importance (Hall et al 2001;Zehner et al 2004;Cummings and Krafsur 2005;Segura et al 2006;Angella et al 2007). …”

Cytogenetic analysis of the Ethiopian fruit fly Dacus ciliatus (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Both genera were formerly grouped within one single genus until Drew (1989) proposed to restrict Dacus to species with fused abdominal terga, while Bactrocera comprised species with unfused terga. The close phylogenetic relationship of the two genera is further supported by recent molecular phylogenetic studies based mainly on mitochondrial DNA data (Han and McPheron 1997;Smith et al 2003;Segura et al 2006;Han and Ro 2009). It should be noted that B. oleae is present in eastern and southern Africa, and that all its immediate relatives are of African origin (Ian White, personal communication).…”

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata: cross-species amplification in other Tephritidae species reveals a varying degree of transferability

“…This is a general situation that has been reported in many different taxa (for a review see Barbará et al 2007) as well as in Tephritidae ). The declining amplification values (taking into account both percentages of amplicons and amplicons of expected size) of Bactrocera, Anastrepha, and Rhagoletis (18, 11.6, and 8.5%, respectively) are in accordance with the molecular phylogeny of the Tephritidae family (Han et al 2006;Segura et al 2006). Current taxonomy suggests that Ceratitis and Bactrocera are closely related, Anasterpha is more distant from these two genera and Rhagoletis is less related to the other three genera.…”

“…4). The taxonomy of the Tephritidae family is well established (Han et al 2006;Segura et al 2006); however, there are still problems in discriminating members of complex species such as A. fraterculus and B. dorsalis. The abundance of our markers along with analysis of large samples from each species could help to clarify such kind of questions.…”