Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, 53113, Bonn, Germany.
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute of Biology I (Zoology), Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
BMC Evol Biol. 2020 Jun 3;20(1):64. doi: 10.1186/s12862-020-01631-6.
The latest advancements in DNA sequencing technologies have facilitated the resolution of the phylogeny of insects, yet parts of the tree of Holometabola remain unresolved. The phylogeny of Neuropterida has been extensively studied, but no strong consensus exists concerning the phylogenetic relationships within the order Neuroptera. Here, we assembled a novel transcriptomic dataset to address previously unresolved issues in the phylogeny of Neuropterida and to infer divergence times within the group. We tested the robustness of our phylogenetic estimates by comparing summary coalescent and concatenation-based phylogenetic approaches and by employing different quartet-based measures of phylogenomic incongruence, combined with data permutations.
Our results suggest that the order Raphidioptera is sister to Neuroptera + Megaloptera. Coniopterygidae is inferred as sister to all remaining neuropteran families suggesting that larval cryptonephry could be a ground plan feature of Neuroptera. A clade that includes Nevrorthidae, Osmylidae, and Sisyridae (i.e. Osmyloidea) is inferred as sister to all other Neuroptera except Coniopterygidae, and Dilaridae is placed as sister to all remaining neuropteran families. Ithonidae is inferred as the sister group of monophyletic Myrmeleontiformia. The phylogenetic affinities of Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae were dependent on the data type analyzed, and quartet-based analyses showed only weak support for the placement of Hemerobiidae as sister to Ithonidae + Myrmeleontiformia. Our molecular dating analyses suggest that most families of Neuropterida started to diversify in the Jurassic and our ancestral character state reconstructions suggest a primarily terrestrial environment of the larvae of Neuropterida and Neuroptera.
Our extensive phylogenomic analyses consolidate several key aspects in the backbone phylogeny of Neuropterida, such as the basal placement of Coniopterygidae within Neuroptera and the monophyly of Osmyloidea. Furthermore, they provide new insights into the timing of diversification of Neuropterida. Despite the vast amount of analyzed molecular data, we found that certain nodes in the tree of Neuroptera are not robustly resolved. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of integrating the results of morphological analyses with those of sequence-based phylogenomics. We also suggest that comparative analyses of genomic meta-characters should be incorporated into future phylogenomic studies of Neuropterida.
最新的 DNA 测序技术进步促进了昆虫系统发育的解决，但全变态类的部分分支仍然没有得到解决。脉翅目动物的系统发育已经得到了广泛的研究，但在脉翅目内部的系统发育关系上没有形成强烈的共识。在这里，我们组装了一个新的转录组数据集，以解决脉翅目系统发育中以前未解决的问题，并推断该组内的分歧时间。我们通过比较综合聚结和基于串联的系统发育方法以及使用不同的基于四分体的系统发育不一致性度量，结合数据置换，来测试我们的系统发育估计的稳健性。
我们的结果表明，Raphidioptera 目与 Neuroptera + Megaloptera 目并列。Coniopterygidae 被推断为所有剩余脉翅目科的姐妹群，这表明幼虫的隐肾可能是脉翅目的一个基础特征。一个包含 Nevrorthidae、Osmylidae 和 Sisyridae（即 Osmyloidea）的分支被推断为除了 Coniopterygidae 之外所有其他脉翅目的姐妹群，而 Dilaridae 则被置于所有剩余脉翅目科的姐妹群。Ithonidae 被推断为单系 Myrmeleontiformia 的姐妹群。Chrysopidae 和 Hemerobiidae 的系统发育关系依赖于所分析的数据类型，基于四分体的分析仅微弱地支持将 Hemerobiidae 置于 Ithonidae + Myrmeleontiformia 的姐妹群位置。我们的分子定年分析表明，大多数脉翅目科在侏罗纪开始多样化，我们的祖先特征状态重建表明脉翅目和脉翅目幼虫的主要环境是陆地环境。
我们广泛的系统发育基因组分析巩固了脉翅目系统发育骨干中的几个关键方面，例如 Coniopterygidae 在脉翅目中的基础位置和 Osmyloidea 的单系性。此外，它们为脉翅目的多样化时间提供了新的见解。尽管分析了大量的分子数据，但我们发现脉翅目树中的某些节点没有得到稳健的解决。因此，我们强调将形态分析的结果与基于序列的系统发育基因组学的结果相结合的重要性。我们还建议在未来的脉翅目系统发育基因组学研究中纳入基因组元特征的比较分析。
