Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 64(1): 27-34, doi: 10.3897/asp.64.e31641
Evidence from mitochondrial genomics on interordinal relationships in insects
expand article infoStephen L. Cameron, Andrew T. Beckenbach, Mark Dowton, Michael F. Whiting
Open Access
Abstract
Mitochondrial (mt) genomes are the largest molecular data source for deep level insect phylogenetics that is also obtainable in a reasonable timeframe and for a reasonable cost. Over 100 insect mt genomes have been sequenced, representing 29 of the 30 orders, multiple suborders for a third of the orders, and many representatives of the mega-diverse orders. Genome rearrangements have been found in a third of the insect orders however these rearrangements diagnose groups of ordinal or lower rank. Sequence based phylogenetic hypotheses utilizing mt genomic data are a promising source of data on interordinal relationships however these studies are hampered by base compositional biases, unequal rates of nucleotide substitution across groups and other long-branch effects. Available data from the field of insect mitogenomic phylogenetics is reviewed and future directions in this research outlined.
Keywords
Mitochondria, genomics, phylogenetics, Insecta, interordinal relationships, gene rearrangements.