Systematics and biogeography of Rhodniini (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) based on 16S mitochondrial rDNA sequences

Abstract

Aim The tribe Rhodniini is one of six comprising the subfamily Triatominae (Heteroptera: Reduviidae), notorious as blood-sucking household pests and vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi throughout Latin America. The human and economic cost of this disease in the American tropics is considerable, and these bugs are unquestionably of great importance to man. Studies of the evolution, phylogeny, biogeography, ecology, physiology and behaviour of the Rhodniini are needed to help improve existing Chagas' disease control programmes. The objective of the study reported here was to propose biogeographical hypotheses to explain the modern geographical distribution of the species of Rhodniini. Location Neotropical region.Methods We employed mitochondrial rDNA sequences (16S) currently available in GenBank to align sequences of Rhodniini species using ClustalX. The analyses included 16S sequences from predatory reduviid subfamilies (Stenopodainae, Ectrichodiinae, Harpactorinae, Reduviinae and Salyavatinae) present in GenBank as an outgroup. Cladistic analysis used the program PAUP to derive trees based on maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML). Known distribution data for Rhodniini species were obtained from reviews and plotted on maps of South and Central America using the program iMap. An area cladogram was derived from the cladistic result to show the historical connections among the studied taxa and the endemic areas. The program TreeMap (Jungle Edition) was used to deduce taxon-area associations where the optimal solutions to explain the biogeographical hypothesis of the Rhodniini in the Neotropics were those with lowest total cost.Results Parsimony and maximum-likelihood analysis of 16S rDNA sequences included 14 species of Rhodniini, as well as five species of predatory Reduviidae representing five of the predatory subfamilies. Tanglegrams were used to show the relationship between the Neotropical areas of endemism and Rhodniini species. When TreeMap with codivergence (vicariance) events were weighted as 0 and duplication (sympatry), lineage losses (extinction) and host switching (dispersal) were all weighted as 1, 20 scenarios were found to explain the biogeographical history of Rhodniini in the Neotropical region. Twelve of the optimal solutions with the lowest total cost were used to explain the biogeography of the Rhodniini in the Neotropics. These optimal reconstructions require six vicariance events, 20 duplications (sympatry), at least three dispersals, and at least one extinction event.Main conclusions The Rhodniini have a complex biogeographical history that has involved vicariance, duplications (sympatry), dispersal and extinction events. The main geological events affecting the origin and diversification of the Rhodniini in the Neotropics were (1) uplift of the

Sistemática e biogeografia histórica da família Conopophagidae (Aves: Passeriformes): especiação nas florestas da América do Sul

“…Isso porque, pelo menos em parte, a maioria das áreas de endemismo descritas na literatura (Cracraft 1985;Amorim & Pires 1996;Haffer 1985) estão representadas nesse estudo por táxons com distribuição alopátridas correspondentes. Nesse sentido, a família Conopophagidae pode ser um bom modelo para se testar as hipóteses biogeográficas de relações entre essas áreas Bates et al 1998;Marks et al 2002;de Paula et al 2007). …”

Comparative descriptions of eggs from three species of Rhodnius (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae)

“…Both display phallic structures that are not found in other species of the genus, such as the phallosome (Ph) support (SPh), bifid median process of the pygophore and an absence of the Ph process (PrPh), which could be considered a link between the tribes Rhodniini and Triatomini (Jurberg et al 1998). However, this assumption was refuted by some DNA sequence-based comparisons (Monteiro et al 2000, Hypsa et al 2002, Paula et al 2007. R. stali is a typically wild species that lives in association with palm trees, birds' nests and mammals.…”

“…Previous studies have adopted several approaches to better define the different Rhodnius species and their interrelations. These approaches have included the study of eggs (Barata 1981, Obara et al 2007, genital morphology (Lent & Jurberg 1969), salivary gland morphology (Santos et al 1997), ribosomal DNA (Monteiro et al 2000, Naegele et al 2006, biogeography and phylogeny (Schofield & Dujardin 1999, Abad-Franch & Monteiro 2007, Paula et al 2007). …”

Trypanosoma cruzi: diversidade, relações filogenéticas e padrões ecogeográficos de isolados silvestres.

“…Triatomíneos do gênero Rhodnius possuem uma história biogeográfica complexa e uma longa associação com espécies de palmeiras na América Latina. As espécies desse gênero estão distribuídas em três complexos de acordo com filogenias baseadas em zimodemas e seqüências de 16S mitocondrial rDNA, citocromo b e 28S rDNA (Lyman et al, 1999;Hypsa et al, 2002;Monteiro et al, 2000Monteiro et al, , 2003Paula et al, 2006). Os complexos de Rhodnius estão associados com palmeiras simpátricas e possuem diferentes padrões filogeográficos: (1) (Galvão et al, 2003).…”