Molecular phylogeography of two sibling species of Eurema butterflies.
The common yellow butterfly Eurema hecabe is widely distributed in East Asia, and is one of the most burdensome species for taxonomists due to the numerous geographic and seasonal wing colour patterns. Moreover, within this species, individuals with a yellow wing fringe that occur in temperate regions of Japan (Y type) proved to be biologically different from others that occur widely in subtropical regions of Japan and all over East Asia (B type). To unveil the genetic variation within and between the two types, a total of 50 butterflies collected at 18 geographic localities in East Asia were examined for nucleotide sequence variation of three mitochondrial regions: cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), cytochrome c oxidase subunit III (COIII) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5). In addition, they were also examined for infection status with the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia. The three mitochondrial sequences consistently showed that (i) Y type and B type were highly divergent, (ii) nucleotide variation within B type was very small although sampled from a geographically wide range, and (iii) a weak association existed between mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and Wolbachia infection status.
Narita
Satoko
S
Laboratory of Applied Entomology and Zoology, Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Matsudo, Chiba 271-8510, Japan.
Nomura
Masashi
M
Kato
Yoshiomi
Y
Yata
Osamu
O
Kageyama
Daisuke
D
D000818:Animals; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology; D002080:Butterflies / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D020577:Wolbachia
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV