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Phylogeny and species delineation in European species of the genus Steganacarus (Acari, Oribatida) using mitochondrial and nuclear markers

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Abstract

Species of the genus Steganacarus are soil-living oribatid mites (Acari, Phthiracaridae) with a ptychoid body. The phylogeny and species status of the species of Steganacarus are not resolved, some authors group all ten German species of Steganacarus within the genus Steganacarus whereas others split them into three subgenera, Steganacarus, Tropacarus and Atropacarus. Additionally, two species, S. magnus and T. carinatus, comprise morphotypes of questionable species status. We investigated the phylogeny and species status of ten European Steganacarus species, i.e. S. applicatus, S. herculeanus, S. magnus forma magna, S. magnus forma anomala, S. spinosus, Tropacarus brevipilus, T. carinatus forma carinata, T. carinatus forma pulcherrima, Atropacarus striculus and Rhacaplacarus ortizi. We used two molecular markers, a 251 bp fragment of the nuclear gene 28S rDNA (D3) and a 477 bp fragment of the mitochondrial COI region. The phylogeny based on a combined analysis of D3 and COI separated four subgenera (Steganacarus, Tropacarus and Atropacarus, Rhacaplacarus) indicating that they form monophyletic groups. The COI region separated all ten species of the genus Steganacarus and showed variation within some species often correlating with the geographic origin of the species. Resolution of the more conserved D3 region was limited, indicating that radiation events are rather recent. Overall, our results indicate that both genes alone cannot be used for phylogeny and barcoding since variation is too low in D3 and too high in COI. However, when used in combination these genes provide reliable insight into the phylogeny, radiation and species status of taxa of the genus Steganacarus.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Patrick Pachl and Garvin Schulz for help in the molecular laboratory and during phylogenetic analysis, and Roy A. Norton and Gerd Weigmann for valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg August University Göttingen, Berliner Strasse 28, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Victoria Kreipe, Stefan Scheu, Ina Schaefer & Mark Maraun

  2. Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, Sarriena NBDH, 48940, Leioa, Spain

    Elena Corral-Hernández

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  1. Victoria Kreipe
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  2. Elena Corral-Hernández
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  3. Stefan Scheu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Maraun.

Electronic supplementary material

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10493_2015_9905_MOESM1_ESM.pptx

Figure 4. Maximum likelihood tree of ten species of the genus Steganacarus based on the protein sequence of the mitochondrial COI gene. Numbers on nodes are bootstrap support and posterior probabilities

10493_2015_9905_MOESM2_ESM.pptx

Figure 5. Maximum likelihood tree of ten species of the genus Steganacarus based on the nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene, the 3rd codon positions were excluded from the analysis. Numbers on nodes are bootstrap support and posterior probabilities

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Kreipe, V., Corral-Hernández, E., Scheu, S. et al. Phylogeny and species delineation in European species of the genus Steganacarus (Acari, Oribatida) using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Exp Appl Acarol 66, 173–186 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-015-9905-4

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