Bologna Marco A, Oliverio Marco, Pitzalis Monica, Mariottini Paolo
Dipartimento di Biologia, "Roma Tre" University, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146 Roma, Italy.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2008 Aug;48(2):679-93. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.019. Epub 2008 Apr 22.
Meloid beetles are well characterised by both morphological and biological features. Previous phylogenetic hypotheses based on morphological characters assumed the repeated parallel evolution of complex biological novelties. In this work relationships among several taxa of the four subfamilies and almost all tribes representing meloid diversity are examined by using mitochondrial (16S) and nuclear (ITS2) DNA sequences, in 25 genera (using Anthicidae as outgroup). Secondary structure of 16S and ITS2 rRNAs were modelled. ITS2 structure represents a synapomorphic condition for the family and informative characters at the tribal level. Phylogenetic hypotheses based on separate and combined analysis of the 16S and ITS2 rDNA sequences, and morpho-biological characters were tested, and compared with previous morphological classifications. Molecular dating allowed an outline of the main steps of the evolutionary history of Meloidae, which evolved during Early Cretaceous and then radiated considerably with the adoption of hypermetaboly and parasitic behaviour, and with repeated, parallel evolution of larval phoresy on its hosts.
芫菁甲虫在形态和生物学特征方面都有很好的描述。以前基于形态特征的系统发育假说认为复杂生物新特征存在反复的平行进化。在这项研究中，通过使用线粒体（16S）和核（ITS2）DNA序列，对代表芫菁多样性的四个亚科和几乎所有部落的几个分类单元之间的关系进行了研究，涉及25个属（以蚁象科作为外类群）。对16S和ITS2 rRNA的二级结构进行了建模。ITS2结构代表了该科的一个共衍征条件以及部落水平上的信息特征。对基于16S和ITS2 rDNA序列的单独和联合分析以及形态生物学特征的系统发育假说进行了检验，并与以前的形态分类进行了比较。分子定年勾勒出了芫菁科进化历史的主要步骤，芫菁科在白垩纪早期进化，然后随着采用超变态和寄生行为，以及在其宿主上幼虫携带现象的反复平行进化而大量辐射。
