Molecular phylogenetic study of the tribe Trypetini (Diptera: Tephritidae), using mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA...

Monophyly and intratribal relationships of the tribe Trypetini were tested using mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene from 16 species of Trypetini, six tephritid outgroups, and two non-tephritid outgroups. The number of aligned sites was 1279 bp, but 1165 bp were used for analysis after excluding sites with missing data or gaps. Among these 1165 sites, 447 sites were variable and 305 were informative for parsimony analysis. Phylogenetic information was extracted from this data set using neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods and compared to a phylogenetic hypothesis proposed from the morphological literature. My molecular data suggest: (1) monophyly of the tribe Trypetini; (2) monophyly of the Chetostoma group; (3) monophyly of the Trypeta group; and (4) non-monophyletic nature of the previous concept of Hemilea. I suggest that more sensitive genetic markers with less A+T bias are needed to bring about finer resolution within the tribe Trypetini, and additional tephritid lineages should be sampled to identify the sister-group relationship of the tribe Trypetini.