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Long-branch attraction and the phylogeny of true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) as estimated from mitochondrial genomes.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Most previous studies of morphological and molecular data have consistently supported the monophyly of the true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha). An exception is a recent study by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) based on nine nepomorphan mitochondrial genomes. In the analysis of Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009), the water bugs in the group Pleoidea formed the sister group to a clade that consisted of Nepomorpha (the remaining true water bugs) + Leptopodomorpha (shore bugs) + Cimicomorpha (assassin bugs and relatives) + Pentatomomorpha (stink bugs and relatives), thereby suggesting that fully aquatic hemipterans evolved independently at least twice. Based on these results, Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) elevated the Pleoidea to a new infraorder, the Plemorpha. RESULTS:Our reanalysis suggests that the lack of support for the monophyly of the true water bugs (including Pleoidea) by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) likely resulted from inadequate taxon sampling. In particular, long-branch attraction (LBA) between the distant outgroup taxa and Pleoidea, as well as LBA among taxa in the ingroup, made Nepomorpha appear to be polyphyletic. We used three complementary strategies to test and alleviate the effects of LBA: (1) the removal of distant outgroups from the analysis; (2) the addition of closely related outgroups; and (3) the addition of a mitochondrial genome from a second family of Pleoidea. We also performed likelihood-ratio tests to examine the support for monophyly of Nepomorpha with different combinations of taxa included in the analysis. Furthermore, we found that specimens of Helotrephes sp. were misidentified as Paraplea frontalis (Fieber, 1844) by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009). CONCLUSIONS:All analyses that included the addition of more taxa significantly and consistently supported the placement of Pleoidea within the Nepomorpha (i.e., supported the monophyly of the traditional true water bugs). Our analyses further support a close relationship between Notonectoidea and Pleoidea within Nepomorpha, and the superfamilies Nepoidea, Ochteroidea, Naucoroidea, and Pleoidea are resolved as monophyletic in all trees with strong support. Our results also confirmed that monophyly of Nepomorpha clearly is not refuted by the mitochondrial genome data.

SUBMITTER: Li T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4101842 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Long-branch attraction and the phylogeny of true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) as estimated from mitochondrial genomes.

Li Teng T Hua Jimeng J Wright April M AM Cui Ying Y Xie Qiang Q Bu Wenjun W Hillis David M DM

BMC evolutionary biology 20140507

<h4>Background</h4>Most previous studies of morphological and molecular data have consistently supported the monophyly of the true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha). An exception is a recent study by Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009) based on nine nepomorphan mitochondrial genomes. In the analysis of Hua et al. (BMC Evol Biol 9: 134, 2009), the water bugs in the group Pleoidea formed the sister group to a clade that consisted of Nepomorpha (the remaining true water bugs) + Leptopodomorpha ...[more]

PMID: 24884699

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Project description:With about 5,000 species worldwide, the Heteroptera or true bugs are the most diverse taxon among the hemimetabolous insects in aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems. Species may be found in almost every freshwater environment and have very specific habitat requirements, making them excellent bioindicator organisms for water quality. However, a correct determination by morphology is challenging in many species groups due to high morphological variability and polymorphisms within, but low variability between species. Furthermore, it is very difficult or even impossible to identify the immature life stages or females of some species, e.g., of the corixid genus Sigara. In this study we tested the effectiveness of a DNA barcode library to discriminate species of the Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha of Germany. We analyzed about 700 specimens of 67 species, with 63 species sampled in Germany, covering more than 90% of all recorded species. Our library included various morphological similar taxa, e.g., species within the genera Sigara and Notonecta as well as water striders of the genus Gerris. Fifty-five species (82%) were unambiguously assigned to a single Barcode Index Number (BIN) by their barcode sequences, whereas BIN sharing was observed for 10 species. Furthermore, we found monophyletic lineages for 52 analyzed species. Our data revealed interspecific K2P distances with below 2.2% for 18 species. Intraspecific distances above 2.2% were shown for 11 species. We found evidence for hybridization between various corixid species (Sigara, Callicorixa), but our molecular data also revealed exceptionally high intraspecific distances as a consequence of distinct mitochondrial lineages for Cymatia coleoptrata and the pygmy backswimmer Plea minutissima. Our study clearly demonstrates the usefulness of DNA barcodes for the identification of the aquatic Heteroptera of Germany and adjacent regions. In this context, our data set represents an essential baseline for a reference library for bioassessment studies of freshwater habitats using modern high-throughput technologies in the near future. The existing data also opens new questions regarding the causes of observed low inter- and high intraspecific genetic variation and furthermore highlight the necessity of taxonomic revisions for various taxa, combining both molecular and morphological data.

Dataset Information

Long-branch attraction and the phylogeny of true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) as estimated from mitochondrial genomes.

Publications

Long-branch attraction and the phylogeny of true water bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) as estimated from mitochondrial genomes.

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