Yuan Huan, Chen Bin
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Vector Control and Utinization, Institute of Entomology and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jul 25;26(15):7222. doi: 10.3390/ijms26157222.
Diptera comprises more than 154,000 described species, representing approximately 10-12% of insects. Members have successfully colonized all continents and a wide range of habitats. However, higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Diptera have remained ambiguous. Mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) have been used as valuable molecular markers for resolving phylogenetic issues. To explore the effect of such markers in solving the higher-level phylogenetic relationship of Diptera, we sequenced and annotated the mitogenomes of 25 species, combined with 180 mitogenomes from 33 superfamilies of dipteran insects to conduct a phylogenetic analysis based on the PCGsrRNA and PCGs12rRNA datasets using IQ-TREE under the partition model. The phylogenetic analysis failed to recover the monophyly of the two suborders Nematocera and Brachycera. Two of six infraorders within the Nematocera-Tipulomorpha and Ptychopteromorpha-were monophyletic. The ancestral Deuterophlebiidae were a strongly supported sister group of all remaining Diptera, but Anisopodidae, as the closest relative of Brachycera, received only weak support. Three of four infraorders within Branchycera-Tabanomorpha, Xylophagomorpha, and Stratiomyomorpha-were, respectively, supported as a monophyletic clade, except Muscomorpha due to the strong long-branch attraction between Cecidomyiidae and Nycteribiidae. The inferred infraordinal relationships followed the topology Tabanomorpha + (Xylophagomorpha + (Stratiomyomorpha + Muscomorpha)). However, the proposed topology lacks strong statistical support, suggesting alternative relationships remain plausible. Based on mitogenome data alone, we infer that Diptera originated earlier than the Late Triassic at 223.43 Mya (95% highest posterior density [HPD] 166.60-272.02 Mya) and the earliest brachyeran Diptera originated in the mid-Jurassic (171.61 Mya).
双翅目包含超过15.4万个已描述物种，约占昆虫种类的10 - 12%。其成员已成功在各大洲及广泛的栖息地中繁衍。然而，双翅目内部的高级系统发育关系仍不明确。线粒体基因组（mitogenomes）已被用作解决系统发育问题的重要分子标记。为探究此类标记在解决双翅目高级系统发育关系中的作用，我们对25个物种的线粒体基因组进行了测序和注释，并结合来自双翅目昆虫33个总科的180个线粒体基因组，使用IQ-TREE在分区模型下基于PCGsrRNA和PCGs12rRNA数据集进行系统发育分析。系统发育分析未能恢复长角亚目和短角亚目这两个亚目的单系性。长角亚目内的六个下目中，毛蚊下目和大蚊下目这两个下目是单系的。原始的原大蚊科是所有其余双翅目的一个得到有力支持的姐妹群，但作为短角亚目最亲近亲属的沼大蚊科仅得到微弱支持。短角亚目内的四个下目中，虻下目、食木虻下目和水虻下目分别被支持为单系类群，除了蝇下目，因为瘿蚊科和蝠蝇科之间存在强烈的长枝吸引作用。推断的下目关系遵循虻下目 + （食木虻下目 + （水虻下目 + 蝇下目））的拓扑结构。然而，所提出的拓扑结构缺乏有力的统计支持，这表明其他关系仍有可能。仅基于线粒体基因组数据，我们推断双翅目起源于三叠纪晚期之前，时间为2.2343亿年前（95%最高后验密度[HPD]为1.6660 - 2.7202亿年前），最早的短角双翅目起源于侏罗纪中期（1.7161亿年前）。
