ITS2 secondary structure improves phylogeny estimation in a radiation of blue butterflies of the subgenus Agrodiaetus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Polyommatus) |
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Authors: | Martin Wiemers Alexander Keller Matthias Wolf |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Animal Biodiversity, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Wien, Austria 2. Department of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany
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Abstract: | Background Current molecular phylogenetic studies of Lepidoptera and most other arthropods are predominantly based on mitochondrial genes
and a limited number of nuclear genes. The nuclear genes, however, generally do not provide sufficient information for young
radiations. ITS2, which has proven to be an excellent nuclear marker for similarly aged radiations in other organisms like fungi and plants,
is only rarely used for phylogeny estimation in arthropods, although universal primers exist. This is partly due to difficulties
in the alignment of ITS2 sequences in more distant taxa. The present study uses ITS2 secondary structure information to elucidate the phylogeny of a species-rich young radiation of arthropods, the butterfly
subgenus Agrodiaetus. One aim is to evaluate the efficiency of ITS2 to resolve the phylogeny of the subgenus in comparison with COI, the most important mitochondrial marker in arthropods. Furthermore, we assess the use of compensatory base changes in ITS2 for the delimitation of species and discuss the prospects of ITS2 as a nuclear marker for barcoding studies. |
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