Preliminary phylogeny of Tribolium beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) resolved by combined analysis of mitochondrial genes

Abstract

Abstract. The phylogenetic relationships of the three major species groups of Tribolium (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) were inferred using the simultaneous analysis of 642 bp of the most conserved part of mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and 448-452 bp of mt 16S rDNA. High sequence divergence was observed for both genes even among sibling species. The analysis of the combined segments of COI and 16S rDNA sequences produced a phylogenetic tree with moderate level of confidence. The tree topology showed monophyly of the genus Tribolium whose species were separated into three groups: "brevicornis" group (with T. brevicornis as the only representative), "castaneum" group (with T. castaneum, T. freemani, T. madens and T. audax) and "confusum" group (with T. confusum, T. anaphe and T. destructor). Sibling species pairs T. castaneum -T. freemani and T. madens -T. audax are clearly resolved. The preliminary results presented here give moderate support to the previously proposed phylogeny based on morphological data.

Body size is not critical for criticalPO2 in scarabaeid and tenebrionid beetles

“…We additionally conducted an independent contrast analysis in Mesquite (Maddison and Maddison, 2006) using the PDAP module (MESQUITE V1.12) and in R using the 'ape' package (Paradis et al, 2004) to make phylogenetic corrections. The topology of the phylogenetic tree was constructed using previously published work (Doyen and Tschinkel, 1982;Kaiser et al, 2007;Mestrovic et al, 2006;Smith et al, 2006) and consultation with Dr Kelly Miller (Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA) and Dr Clarke Scholtz (Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa). To test for the influence of phylogenetic effects, we performed OLS and SMA line-fits on independent contrasts using normalized branch lengths.…”

Relationships among pest flour beetles of the genus Tribolium (Tenebrionidae) inferred from multiple molecular markers

“…The mitochondrial phylogeny of Meštrović et al (2006) also strongly supports the monophyly of the castaneum and confusum species groups, although using parsimony and Bayesian methods they obtain conflicting species relationships within the confusum group.…”

“…Meštrović et al (2006) inferred phylogenies based on cox1 and 16S rDNA sequences from eight Tribolium species (those pests used in the present study). Their results from parsimony and Bayesian analyses conflicted on the placement of T. brevicornis but supported monophyly of the castaneum and confusum species groups.…”

“…A previous mitochondrial phylogeny of Tribolium has suggested monophyly of the genus, but this is likely due to the fact that fewer and different outgroup (non-Tribolium) species were included (Meštrović, et al, 2006). Here we sought to include as broad a sampling of tenebrionids as possible.…”

Co2 Effects on Larval Development and Genetics of Mealworm Beetle, Tenebrio Molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in Two Different Co2 Systems

“…Several studies were conducted to create evolutionary trends from the family Tenebrionidae, but no phylogenetically informative molecular data are available for this genus (Mestrovic et al, 2006). Sequence analysis has been performed for a 642 bp fragment of the most conserved part of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in eight species of Tribolium, as well as in two outgroup species, Pimelia elevata and T. molitor (Mestrovic et al, 2006). Some studies were done on other insects as subjects or model species predict similar results in T. molitor.…”