title: The phylogenetic position of eriophyoid mites (superfamily Eriophyoidea) in Acariformes inferred from the sequences of mitochondrial genomes and nuclear small subunit (18S) rRNA gene.
abstract: Eriophyoid mites (superfamily Eriophyoidea) comprise >4400 species worldwide. Despite over a century of study, the phylogenetic position of these mites within Acariformes is still poorly resolved. Currently, Eriophyoidea is placed in the order Trombidiformes. We inferred the high-level phylogeny of Acari with the mitochondrial (mt) genome sequences of 110 species including four eriophyoid species, and the nuclear small subunit (18S) rRNA gene sequences of 226 species including 25 eriophyoid species. Maximum likelihood (ML), Bayesian inference (BI) and Maximum parsimony (MP) methods were used to analyze the sequence data. Divergence times were estimated for major lineages of Acari using Bayesian approaches. Our analyses consistently recovered the monophyly of Eriophyoidea but rejected the monophyly of Trombidiformes. The eriophyoid mites were grouped with the sarcoptiform mites, or were the sister group of sarcoptiform mites+non-eriophyoid trombidiform mites, depending on data partition strategies. Eriophyoid mites diverged from other mites in the Devonian (384Mya, 95% HPD, 352-410Mya). The origin of eriophyoid mites was dated to the Permian (262Mya, 95% HPD 230-307Mya), mostly prior to the radiation of gymnosperms (Triassic-Jurassic) and angiosperms (early Cretaceous). We propose that the placement of Eriophyoidea in the order Trombidiformes under the current classification system should be reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China. Electronic address: xfxue@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Yue
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: GeneCology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Queensland 4556, Australia. Electronic address: rshao@usc.edu.au.
authors.forename: Renfu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D008925:Mites / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: 18S rRNA; Divergence time; High-level phylogeny; Mitochondrial genomes; Systematic; Trombidiformes