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Conservation patterns in angiosperm rDNA ITS2 sequences.

ABSTRACT: The two internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA have become commonly exploited sources of informative variation for interspecific-/intergeneric-level phylogenetic analyses among angiosperms and other eukaryotes. We present an alignment in which one-third to one-half of the ITS2 sequence is alignable above the family level in angiosperms and a phenetic analysis showing that ITS2 contains information sufficient to diagnose lineages at several hierarchical levels. Base compositional analysis shows that angiosperm ITS2 is inherently GC-rich, and that the proportion of T is much more variable than that for other bases. We propose a general model of angiosperm ITS2 secondary structure that shows common pairing relationships for most of the conserved sequence tracts. Variations in our secondary structure predictions for sequences from different taxa indicate that compensatory mutation is not limited to paired positions.

SUBMITTER: Hershkovitz MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC146035 | biostudies-other | 1996 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Conservation patterns in angiosperm rDNA ITS2 sequences.

Hershkovitz M A MA Zimmer E A EA

Nucleic acids research 19960801 15

The two internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA have become commonly exploited sources of informative variation for interspecific-/intergeneric-level phylogenetic analyses among angiosperms and other eukaryotes. We present an alignment in which one-third to one-half of the ITS2 sequence is alignable above the family level in angiosperms and a phenetic analysis showing that ITS2 contains information sufficient to diagnose lineages at several hierarchical levels. Base ...[more]

PMID: 8760866

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The Anopheles hyrcanus group includes 25 species, and is widely distributed in the Oriental and Palaearctic regions. Several species within this group are vectors of malaria, lymphatic filariasis and Japanese encephalitis. It is difficult or impossible to identify cryptic species based on their morphological characteristics, with some closely related species of the Hyrcanus Group have similar adult morphological characteristics. Thus, their molecular identification has been an important complementary method to traditional morphological taxonomy. METHODS:We used 461 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequences relating to 19 species to reconstruct the molecular phylogeny of the Hyrcanus Group across its range. In addition, we compared the performance of rDNA ITS2 to that of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) to assess the genetic divergence of Hyrcanus Group sibling species. RESULTS:Based on Kimura's 2-parameter (K2P) distance model, the average conspecific ITS2 divergence was 0.003, whereas sequence divergence between species averaged 0.480. Average ITS2 sequence divergences were almost 160 times higher among the Hyrcanus Group members than within each species. Two sets of sibling species, An. lesteri Baisas & Hu, 1936 and An. paraliae Sandosham, 1959; and An. sinensis Wiedemann, 1828, An. belenrae Rueda, 2005, and An. kleini Rueda, 2005, were resolved by ITS2. Each of these species was represented as an independent lineage in the phylogenetic tree. Results suggest that An. pseudopictus Grassi, 1899 and An. hyrcanus (Pallas, 1771) are most likely a single species. We uncovered two new ITS2 lineages that require further study before resolving their true taxonomic status, and designed a diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to distinguish five morphologically similar species. CONCLUSIONS:Nuclear and mitochondrial genes generally provided consistent results for subgroup division. Compared to cox1, ITS2 is a more reliable tool for studying phylogenetic relationships among closely related mosquito taxa. Based on species-specific differences in ITS2 sequences, the multiplex PCR assay developed here can be used to improve the efficiency of vector identification. Thus, this research will promote the progress of malaria vector surveillance in both epidemic and non-epidemic areas of South and East Asia.

Project description:BackgroundThe 5' region of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) is the standard marker for DNA barcoding. However, COI has proved to be of limited use in identifying some species, and for some taxa, the coding sequence is not efficiently amplified by PCR. These deficiencies lead to uncertainty as to whether COI is the most suitable barcoding fragment for species identification of ticks.MethodsIn this study, we directly compared the relative effectiveness of COI, 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA), nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and 12S rDNA for tick species identification. A total of 307 sequences from 84 specimens representing eight tick species were acquired by PCR. Besides the 1,834 published sequences of 189 tick species from GenBank and the Barcode of Life Database, 430 unpublished sequences representing 59 tick species were also successfully screened by Bayesian analyses. Thereafter, the performance of the four DNA markers to identify tick species was evaluated by identification success rates given by these markers using nearest neighbour (NN), BLASTn, liberal tree-based or liberal tree-based (+threshold) methods.ResultsGenetic divergence analyses showed that the intra-specific divergence of each marker was much lower than the inter-specific divergence. Our results indicated that the rates of correct sequence identification for all four markers (COI, 16S rDNA, ITS2, 12S rDNA) were very high (> 96%) when using the NN methodology. We also found that COI was not significantly better than the other markers in terms of its rate of correct sequence identification. Overall, BLASTn and NN methods produced higher rates of correct species identification than that produced by the liberal tree-based methods (+threshold or otherwise).ConclusionsAs the standard DNA barcode, COI should be the first choice for tick species identification, while 16S rDNA, ITS2, and 12S rDNA could be used when COI does not produce reliable results. Besides, NN and BLASTn are efficient methods for species identification of ticks.

Dataset Information

Conservation patterns in angiosperm rDNA ITS2 sequences.

Publications

Conservation patterns in angiosperm rDNA ITS2 sequences.

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