IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0138993.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring Genetic Divergence in a Species-Rich Insect Genus Using 2790 DNA Barcodes

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaolong Lin
  • Elisabeth Stur
  • Torbjørn Ekrem

Abstract

DNA barcoding using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI) has proven to be successful for species-level identification in many animal groups. However, most studies have been focused on relatively small datasets or on large datasets of taxonomically high-ranked groups. We explore the quality of DNA barcodes to delimit species in the diverse chironomid genus Tanytarsus (Diptera: Chironomidae) by using different analytical tools. The genus Tanytarsus is the most species-rich taxon of tribe Tanytarsini (Diptera: Chironomidae) with more than 400 species worldwide, some of which can be notoriously difficult to identify to species-level using morphology. Our dataset, based on sequences generated from own material and publicly available data in BOLD, consist of 2790 DNA barcodes with a fragment length of at least 500 base pairs. A neighbor joining tree of this dataset comprises 131 well separated clusters representing 121 morphological species of Tanytarsus: 77 named, 16 unnamed and 28 unidentified theoretical species. For our geographically widespread dataset, DNA barcodes unambiguously discriminate 94.6% of the Tanytarsus species recognized through prior morphological study. Deep intraspecific divergences exist in some species complexes, and need further taxonomic studies using appropriate nuclear markers as well as morphological and ecological data to be resolved. The DNA barcodes cluster into 120–242 molecular operational taxonomic units (OTUs) depending on whether Objective Clustering, Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent model (GMYC), Poisson Tree Process (PTP), subjective evaluation of the neighbor joining tree or Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) are used. We suggest that a 4–5% threshold is appropriate to delineate species of Tanytarsus non-biting midges.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaolong Lin & Elisabeth Stur & Torbjørn Ekrem, 2015. "Exploring Genetic Divergence in a Species-Rich Insect Genus Using 2790 DNA Barcodes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-24, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0138993
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138993
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138993
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138993&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0138993?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mari Kekkonen & Marko Mutanen & Lauri Kaila & Marko Nieminen & Paul D N Hebert, 2015. "Delineating Species with DNA Barcodes: A Case of Taxon Dependent Method Performance in Moths," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-32, April.
    2. Sujeevan Ratnasingham & Paul D N Hebert, 2013. "A DNA-Based Registry for All Animal Species: The Barcode Index Number (BIN) System," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-16, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mari Kekkonen & Marko Mutanen & Lauri Kaila & Marko Nieminen & Paul D N Hebert, 2015. "Delineating Species with DNA Barcodes: A Case of Taxon Dependent Method Performance in Moths," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-32, April.
    2. Johannes Uhler & Sarah Redlich & Jie Zhang & Torsten Hothorn & Cynthia Tobisch & Jörg Ewald & Simon Thorn & Sebastian Seibold & Oliver Mitesser & Jérôme Morinière & Vedran Bozicevic & Caryl S. Benjami, 2021. "Relationship of insect biomass and richness with land use along a climate gradient," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0138993. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.