Integrative Taxonomy of the Gall Mite Nothopoda todeica n. sp. (Eriophyidae) from the Disjunct Afro-Australasian Fern Todea barbara: Morphology, Phylogeny, and Mitogenomics

Abstract

Eriophyoidea is a group of phytoparasitic mites with poorly resolved phylogeny. Previous studies inferred Eriophyidae s.l. as the largest molecular clade of Eriophyoidea, and Nothopodinae as the basal divergence of Eriophyidae s.l. We investigate the morphology and molecular phylogeny of Nothopoda todeica n. sp. (Nothopodinae, Nothopodini), associated with a disjunct Afro-Australasian fern Todea barbara (Osmundaceae) from South Africa. Our analyses (1) determine new erroneous sequences (KF782375, KF782475, KF782586) wrongly assigned to Nothopodinae instead of Phyllocoptinae, (2) confirm the basal position of Nothopodinae in Eriophyoidea s.l., (3) question the monophyly of the Colopodacini and Nothopodini tribes, and (4) show the nested position of African fern-associated Nothopoda within a clade dominated by Asian nothopodines from angiosperms, which implies (a) a secondary association of nothopodines with ferns and (b) no relation between geography (continents) and the phylogenetic relationships of Nothopodinae species. Finally, we obtained a first complete mitochondrial genome for Nothopodinae and revealed a new gene order in the mitogenome of N. todeica n. sp., notably deviating from those in other investigated eriophyoids. Our results contribute to resolving the phylogeny of Eriophyoidea and provide an example of an integrative study of a new taxon belonging to an economically important group of acariform mites.

Atypically Shaped Setae in Gall Mites (Acariformes, Eriophyoidea) and Mitogenomics of the Genus Leipothrix Keifer (Eriophyidae)

“…The four new mitogenomes of Leipothrix spp. comprise the same constant blocks I, II, III and variable zones A,B,C ( Figure 5 ), recently defined in other published mitogenomes of Eriophyidae [ 18 , 32 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. They share the following unique traits: (1) the trn K gene precedes the COX1 gene, (2) two tRNA genes coding leucine are located on different chains of mitochondrial DNA, (3) a cluster of tRNA genes W–V precedes the 12s rRNA gene, (4) genes 16s rRNA and COX1 flank a group of uniquely arranged genes and the control region Y–L–( CR )– NAD2 – Q–C –M–K (genes located on the negative chain are underlined).…”

“…( Table 1 ). For this purpose, we used the same methodology and protocols for DNA extraction, library preparation, PCR, genome sequencing, assembly and annotation as described in [ 39 , 40 ]. Three sequence datasets ( Cox1 , 28S and mitogenomic) were made for molecular phylogenetic analyses.…”

“…For creating the 28S dataset, we blasted sequence OR416172 of L. aegopodii against Eriophyidae and filtered the sequences of 45% coverage. The remaining 166 sequences were aligned and modified as described in [ 40 ]. The mitogenomic dataset included 11 complete sequences of mitochondrial genomes, among them 7 sequences from Genbank [ 18 , 32 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] and 4 sequences obtained in this study ( Table 1 ).…”

“…The remaining 166 sequences were aligned and modified as described in [ 40 ]. The mitogenomic dataset included 11 complete sequences of mitochondrial genomes, among them 7 sequences from Genbank [ 18 , 32 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] and 4 sequences obtained in this study ( Table 1 ).…”

“…For the mitogenomic analysis, mitochondrial rRNA ( 12S and 16S ) and protein genes (translated into amino acids) were aligned using MAFFT, using an E-INS-I algorithm for 12S and 16S genes and a G-INS-i algorithm for the protein genes. The resulting alignments were modified using Gblocks [ 48 , 49 ], as described in [ 40 ]. Sequences of the ATP8 gene were excluded because Gblocks failed to find reliable blocks in the alignment of this gene.…”