Department of Entomology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.
Centre for Bioinnovation, School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, 4556, Australia.
BMC Biol. 2024 Mar 22;22(1):70. doi: 10.1186/s12915-024-01870-9.
Eriophyoid mites (Eriophyoidea) are among the largest groups in the Acariformes; they are strictly phytophagous. The higher-level phylogeny of eriophyoid mites, however, remains unresolved due to the limited number of available morphological characters-some of them are homoplastic. Nevertheless, the eriophyoid mites sequenced to date showed highly variable mitochondrial (mt) gene orders, which could potentially be useful for resolving the higher-level phylogenetic relationships.
Here, we sequenced and compared the complete mt genomes of 153 eriophyoid mite species, which showed 54 patterns of rearranged mt gene orders relative to that of the hypothetical ancestor of arthropods. The shared derived mt gene clusters support the monophyly of eriophyoid mites (Eriophyoidea) as a whole and the monophylies of six clades within Eriophyoidea. These monophyletic groups and their relationships were largely supported in the phylogenetic trees inferred from mt genome sequences as well. Our molecular dating results showed that Eriophyoidea originated in the Triassic and diversified in the Cretaceous, coinciding with the diversification of angiosperms.
This study reveals multiple molecular synapomorphies (i.e. shared derived mt gene clusters) at different levels (i.e. family, subfamily or tribe level) from the complete mt genomes of 153 eriophyoid mite species. We demonstrated the use of derived mt gene clusters in unveiling the higher-level phylogeny of eriophyoid mites, and underlines the origin of these mites and their co-diversification with angiosperms.
瘿螨（Eriophyoidea）是蜱螨目（Acariformes）中最大的类群之一，它们是严格的植食性动物。然而，由于可用形态特征数量有限，其中一些特征是同形的，因此瘿螨的高级系统发育仍然没有得到解决。尽管如此，迄今为止测序的瘿螨显示出高度可变的线粒体（mt）基因排列，这可能有助于解决高级系统发育关系。
在这里，我们对 153 种瘿螨物种的完整 mt 基因组进行了测序和比较，与节肢动物假想祖先的 mt 基因排列相比，发现了 54 种重排的 mt 基因排列模式。共享的衍生 mt 基因簇支持整个瘿螨（Eriophyoidea）作为一个整体以及 Eriophyoidea 内六个类群的单系性。这些单系类群及其关系在基于 mt 基因组序列推断的系统发育树中也得到了很大的支持。我们的分子定年结果表明，Eriophyoidea 起源于三叠纪，在白垩纪多样化，与被子植物的多样化相吻合。
这项研究揭示了来自 153 种瘿螨物种完整 mt 基因组的不同水平（即科、亚科或部落水平）的多个分子同形特征（即共享衍生的 mt 基因簇）。我们证明了衍生 mt 基因簇在揭示瘿螨高级系统发育中的应用，并强调了这些螨虫的起源及其与被子植物的共同多样化。
