Ribosomal protein genes of holometabolan insects reject the Halteria, instead revealing a close affinity of Strepsiptera with Coleoptera

Phylogenetic relationships among insect orders based on three nuclear protein-coding gene sequences

“…In addition, intron analysis of the engrailed gene (Rokas et al, 1999) and molecular phylogenetic analyses using amino acid sequences of the ecdysone receptor (Hayward et al, 2005), and ultraspiracle/retinoid-X-receptor proteins (Bonneton et al, 2006) also did not support the affinity between the two orders. To the contrary, two recent studies using nucleotide sequences of nuclear genes revealed a close relationship between Coleoptera and Strepsiptera (Wiegmann et al, 2009;Longhorn et al, 2010), and rejected the 'Halteria' (Longhorn et al, 2010). Our present analyses provide a strong support to the affinity of Strepsiptera with Coleoptera with very high reliability indices, bootstrap values and posterior probability ( Fig.…”

“…Subsequent analyses based on the secondary structure of the 18S rRNA gene (Misof et al, 2007), the gain and loss of introns (Krauss et al, 2008), and the nucleotide sequences of nuclear genes (Wiegmann et al, 2009;Longhorn et al, 2010) support the results of this genome-scale analysis. Our present analyses based on amino acid sequences of three nuclear protein-coding genes from specimens representing all orders of Holometabola strongly suggest that the order Hymenoptera is the sister group to all the other holometabolous orders (Fig.…”

“…However, controversies on the phylogenetic positions of the two orders, Strepsiptera and Hymenoptera continue to receive attention in insect systematics (Longhorn et al, 2010). Several morphological studies have proposed that Strepsiptera is the sister group of Coleoptera (Kathirithamby, 1989;Kukalová-Peck and Lawrence, 1993;Beutel and Gorb, 2001;Kinzelbach and Pohl, 2003).…”

“…In these two groups, only the sister relationships of Phthiraptera + Psocoptera (Yoshizawa and Johnson, 2003) and Grylloblattodea + Mantophasmatodea (Terry and Whiting, 2005;Arillo and Engel, 2006), and the monophyly of superorder Dictyoptera (Mantodea, ''Blattaria'', and Isoptera) (Inward et al, 2007), have been consistently supported by molecular and morphological studies (Wheeler et al, 2001;Kjer et al, 2006). In spite of the numerous studies concerning such relationships within Holometabola, the phylogenetic positions of the two orders Strepsiptera (twisted-wing parasites) and Hymenoptera (sawflies, bees, ants, and wasps) have also been a subject to long-dispute, and the controversies continue to receive attention (Longhorn et al, 2010).…”

“…Results based on rRNA genes are highly influenced by taxon sampling, sequence alignment, and analysis methods (Carmean et al, 1992;Pashley et al, 1993;Chalwatzis et al, 1996;Whiting, 2002;Ogden and Whiting, 2003;Kjer, 2004), suggesting that they are not very appropriate for investigating the interordinal relationships of insects, and other molecular markers are required to resolve this issue. Recent studies that made comparisons based on multiple nuclear gene sequences represent a promising alternative approach for resolving the phylogeny among insect orders (Savard et al, 2006;Simon et al, 2009;Wiegmann et al, 2009;Longhorn et al, 2010).…”