Phylogenetic studies of Catocala by amplification and sequence analysis of the Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I. Gene, /

Abstract

The insect genus Catocala Schrank pose many interesting evolutionary questions, particularly between chromatic and achromatic species. A comprehensive phylogenetic assessment of the Catocala, may help elucidate these relationships and offer hypotheses which explain the enormous amount of diversity that characteristically describes its more than 200 members. Using a pair of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers, we have amplified a 500 base pair (bp) region within the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO-I) gene from five Catocala species and Euparthenos nubilis. Amplified products were not produced, however, using DNA isolated from C. mira. These genera belong to the same subfamily Catocalinae. Euparthenos may be an appropriate outgroup for cladistic analysis. DNA sequence data, obtained from the amplified CO-I gene regions of C. piatrix, C. grynea, and C. sordida, were submitted for comparisons over the world wide web using a BLAST search. The results of the search showed varying amounts of homology to other CO-I gene regions from a wide variety of organisms. DNA sequence comparisons of C. piatrix and C. grynea revealed 6 out of 125 nucleotide sites as being phylogenetically informative. The A+T content was also shown to be comparable for these species: C. grynea (77%) and C. piatrix (75%). Amino acid sequence comparisons from the same region showed replacement at one codon from alanine (c. piatrix) to arginine (c. grynea). These results, although preliminary, suggest that this region may be rich in phylogenetic signal. DNA sequence data from each species in its entirety, along with other species of Catocala, may facilitate an accurate phylogenetic estimation of its members.