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Citation for Study 2081

About Citation title: "Origin and higher-level relationships of psoroptidian mites (Acari: Astigmata: Psoroptidia): Evidence from three nuclear genes".
About This study was previously identified under the legacy study ID S2083 (Status: Published).

Citation

Klimov P.B., & Oconnor B. 2008. Origin and higher-level relationships of psoroptidian mites (Acari: Astigmata: Psoroptidia): Evidence from three nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 47: 1135-1156.

Authors

  • Klimov P.B. Phone (734)763-4354
  • Oconnor B.

Abstract

Phylogenic relationships of the Psoroptidia, a group of primarily parasitic mites of vertebrates, were inferred from three nuclear genes (EF-1?, 18S, 28SD1-5; 4199 nt aligned) from 34 outgroup and 92 ingroup taxa. Our analysis strongly supports the monophyly of Psoroptidia, which arose within free-living Astigmata. The family Heterocoptidae (insect parasites) was identified as the sister group of Psoroptidia, and the family Hypoderatidae (vertebrate nest inhabitants in non-deutonymphal instars and subcutaneous parasites as deutonymphs) was shown to be the sister-group of the Psoroptidia + Heterocoptidae clade. The psoroptidian bird mite superfamily Pterolichoidea (including Freyanoidea) shared a common ancestor with members of three other previously recognized superfamilies, Analgoidea (bird mites), Sarcoptoidea (mammalian mites), and Pyroglyphoidea (free-living nidicoles, including house dust mites, and bird parasites). Our analysis renders the bird mite superfamily Analgoidea as a paraphyletic assemblage that includes the ancestors of the mammalian and free-living lineages, indicating the need to either include all these mites in a single group, Sarcoptoidea s. l., or split them into many smaller monophyletic groups. The families Psoroptidae and Lobalgidae (mammalian skin parasites) cluster with Pyroglyphidae, Turbinoptidae (upper respiratory track parasites of birds), Psoroptoididae (downy feather mites), and Epidermoptidae (skin parasites of birds). These relationships (the epidermoptid-psoroptid complex), recovered by combined and separate analyses of all gene partitions, were previously suspected based on some morphological evidence, but evidence has been dismissed as resulting from convergence based on similar parasitic ecologies. Another major group of mammalian mites recovered by only ribosomal genes includes the fur mites Chirodiscidae, Myocoptidae, and Listrophoridae, plus the family Gastronyssidae (endoparasites of mammals). Mammalian skin parasites, Rhyncoptidae and several bird mite taxa (Strelkoviacarus, Dermoglyphidae) form a sister-clade and this grouping is weakly supported by all genes. We present a statistical evaluation of certain alternative hypotheses concerning the monophyly and higher-level relationships of Psoroptidia in Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian frameworks. Previous morphological and molecular hypotheses suggesting that Psoroptidia is not monophyletic were rejected statistically by currently available molecular data, and the results are robust under a range of analytical and partition strategies. The rejected hypothesis of a monophyletic Sarcoptoidea (a group joining mammal-associated mites very weakly supported by morphological data) and the strong support for the epidermoptid-psoroptid complex indicate that current classification criteria for the three non-pterolichoid superfamiles have been influenced by host preferences and need to be revised. Our other results (the relationships of Heterocoptidae and Hypoderatidae and Psoroptidia; the monophyly of the superfamily Pterolichoidea (including Freyanoidea)) remain sensitive to analytical methods and assumptions, despite the fact that some relationships (e. g., the former) were consistently recovered by all gene partitions or their combinations, often with very good support.

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  • Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S2081
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