Phylogeny of the infraorder Culicomorpha (Diptera: Nematocera) based on 28S RNA gene sequences

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationships between the families of the infraorder Culicomorpha were investigated by using partial 28S ribosomal RNA gene sequences. All families traditionally placed in this infraorder were investigated and confirmed as clades. On the other hand, some of the morphological relationships between these families were found to be in disagreement with phylogenies based on molecular characters. Our results did not support the generally accepted division of the Culicomorpha into two superfamilies, the Culicoidea (Culicidae ϩ Corethrellidae ϩ Chaoboridae ϩ Dixidae) and the Chironomoidea (Chironomidae ϩ Ceratopogonidae ϩ Simuliidae ϩ Thaumaleidae). Precisely, if the sister-group relationship between Culicidae, Chaoboridae and Corethrellidae was clearly confirmed, the Dixidae, traditionally considered as closely related to these two families, were not placed close to them on our trees. On the other hand, strong evidence was found for grouping together the Simuliidae and the Thaumaleidae, in spite of the cytological and morphological differences between these two families. The position of the Ceratopogonidae was uncertain, and the Chironomidae appeared as a possible sister group to the rest of Culicomorpha. The phylogenetic positions of the groups characterized by feeding on vertebrate blood or insect haemolymph (the Culicidae, Chaoboridae, Ceratopogonidae and Simuliidae) suggest that haematophagy has appeared at least twice in the evolution of Culicomorpha.

Environmental and Genetic Factors Determine Whether the Mosquito Aedes aegypti Lays Eggs Without a Blood Meal

“…9 The ability to lay eggs without a blood meal is the ancestral state for mosquitoes as other insect families related to Culicidae are not blood feeders. 10 Within the three subfamilies that comprise the Culicidae, only the Culicinae and Anophelinae feed on blood. 2 Within these groups, autogeny is common in mosquitoes of the genus Culex, [11][12][13] but is rarer in Anopheles 14 and Aedes mosquitoes.…”

Molecular systematics of the tephritoidea (Insecta: Diptera): Phylogenetic signal in 16S and 28S rDNAs for inferring relationships among families

“…1A) strongfy contrasts with the high information content of the tree for the infraorder Culicomorpha based on the nearfy identical portion of 28S rDNA (Pawlowski et al, 1996). It may be because the infraorder Muscomorpha is much younger than the Culicomorpha, and a krge number of Muscomorpha families might have diverged in a rektively short period of geological time, resulting in numerous short basal phylogenetic branches.…”

“…It contains expansion segments D4, D5, D6, D7a and D7b . The PCR and sequencing primers used in this study are as follows: S28C (5-GTGCAAATCGAT-TGTCAGAA-3') (Primer lOi of Pawlowski et al (1996)); S28E (5-AGCAGGACGGTGGACATGGA-3'); A28D (5'-ACTTAAGCGCCATCCATTTT-3'); S28G (5-GAAGTG-GAGAAGGGTTTCGT-3 3 ); A28F (5-TGGAACCGTATT-CCCTTTCG-3'); A28HL (5'-CTTACCTACATTATTCTA-TCGACT-3 3 ). The DNA fragment used in this study represents the portion bracketed by the primers S28C and A28HL; the rest are internal primers.…”

“…Recentfy, nucleotide sequences have become an increasing^ important source of data to resolve many controversial or unresolved phylogenetic questions, and it has become clear that molecular characters are needed to further resolve the phylogenetic relationships of Tephritoidea (Korneyev, 1999). There have been a few molecular sequence analyses of family level relationships in Diptera (e.g., Vossbrink and Friedman, 1989;Pawlowski et al, 1996;Tautz, 1997a, 1997b;Skevington and Yeates, 2000;Wiegmann et al, 2000), but no attempt has yet been made to infer the relationships among the tephritoid families.…”

“…The fast evolving 16S rDNA has been used in many insect phylogenetic studies, including recent attempts to hblecular Systenntics of Tephritoidea Using 16S and 28S rLNAs resolve relationships within the family Tephritidae (Han andMcPheron, 1997, 1999;McPheron and Han 1997;McPheron et al, 1999;Han, 2000;Han and Ro, 2002). The more slowly evolving 28S rDNA appears highly informative in resolving relationships at the family level within the infra order Culicomorpha (Diptera: Nematocera) (Pawlowski et al, 1996). Because of the preliminary nature of this study, we selected taxa not to resolve many pending phylogenetic questions but to show the degree of resolution at wider taxonomic levels.…”