Molecular approaches to identify cryptic species and polymorphic species within a complex community of fig wasps.
Cryptic and polymorphic species can complicate traditional taxonomic research and both of these concerns are common in fig wasp communities. Species identification is very difficult, despite great effort and the ecological importance of fig wasps. Herein, we try to identify all chalcidoid wasp species hosted by one species of fig, using both morphological and molecular methods. We compare the efficiency of four different DNA regions and find that ITS2 is highly effective for species identification, while mitochondrial COI and Cytb regions appear less reliable, possibly due to the interference signals from either nuclear copies of mtDNA, i.e. NUMTs, or the effects of Wolbachia infections. The analyses suggest that combining multiple markers is the best choice for inferring species identifications as any one marker may be unsuitable in a given case.
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Jin-Hua
JH
Xiao
Ning-Xin
NX
Wang
Yan-Wei
YW
Li
Robert W
RW
Murphy
Dong-Guang
DG
Wan
Li-Ming
LM
Niu
Hao-Yuan
HY
Hu
Yue-Guan
YG
Fu
Da-Wei
DW
Huang
D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D030681:Ficus / Q000469:parasitology*; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D014863:Wasps / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D019476:Insect Proteins; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1; D045303:Cytochromes b; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV