Evolutionary history and divergence times of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) revealed through transcriptomics

Abstract

Dragonflies and damselflies are among the earliest flying insects with extant representatives. However, unraveling details of their long evolutionary history, such as egg laying (oviposition) strategies, is impeded by unresolved phylogenetic relationships, particularly in damselflies. Here we present a transcriptome-based phylogenetic reconstruction of Odonata, analyzing 2,980 protein-coding genes in 105 species representing nearly all the order's families. All damselfly and most dragonfly families are recovered as monophyletic. Our data suggest a sister relationship between dragonfly families of Gomphidae and Petaluridae. According to our divergence time estimates, both crown-Zygoptera and -Anisoptera arose during the late Triassic. Egg-laying with a reduced ovipositor apparently evolved in dragonflies during the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous. Lastly, we also test the impact of fossil choice and placement, particularly, of the extinct fossil species, yTriassolestodes asiaticus, and yProterogomphus renateae on divergence time estimates. We find placement of yProterogomphus renateae to be much more impactful than yTriassolestodes asiaticus.

Nuclear copies of mitochondrial DNA as a potential problem for phylogenetic and population genetic studies of Odonata

“…Our mitophylogenomic analysis based on 13 mitogenome‐encoded genes (Figure 4) was in accordance with the results of broad phylogenomic studies based on 478 loci and more than 80,000 nucleotide positions (Bybee et al, 2021), 1603 genes with a total of 2,167,861 nucleotide positions (Suvorov et al, 2021), or 2890 PCGs with more than 824,000 aligned amino acid positions (Kohli et al, 2021), as well as with outcomes of the majority of analyses based on mitochondrial genes (Jeong et al, 2018; Yong et al, 2016). We were able to recover Zygoptera, Anisoptera and Anisozygoptera+Anisoptera as monophyletic groups with high bootstrap support (94 or 100).…”

“…Internal phylogeny of the family was recovered only with low statistical support in our analysis, but this was also the case in other studies, including the phylogenomic analysis of Bybee et al (2021). Internal branching of Libellulidae has only recently been resolved using a dataset of 2890 PCGs (Kohli et al, 2021). Surprisingly, Deielia phaon NC_042690.1 (Libellulidae) branched within a clade of the family Gomphidae in our analysis.…”

A Chromosome-length Assembly of the Black Petaltail (Tanypteryx hageni) Dragonfly

“…(Bottom Left) T. hageni, larvae, credit Marla Garrison. (Bottom right) Phylogeny of Odonata (modified from Kohli et al 2021). Families with a reference genome highlighted in purple, Petaluridae highlighted in green.…”

“…1). The relative position of Petaluridae with respect to other dragonfly (suborder Anisoptera) families has varied with taxon sampling, data source, and phylogenetic reconstruction method (e.g., (Suvorov et al 2021; Bybee et al 2008; Letsch 2007; Kohli et al 2021; Blanke et al 2013)).…”

“…It is a member of the odonate family Petaluridae (known as ‘petaltails’ due to the broad, petal-like claspers at the end of the male abdomen), which is estimated to have originated approximately 150 million years ago (Ware et al 2014). The relative position of Petaluridae with respect to other dragonfly (suborder Anisoptera) families has varied with taxon sampling, data source, and phylogenetic reconstruction method (e.g., (Suvorov et al 2021; Bybee et al 2008; Letsch 2007; Kohli et al 2021; Blanke et al 2013)).…”