Loading...
Molecular Phylogeny Reveals the Past Transoceanic Voyages of Drywood Termites (Isoptera, Kalotermitidae)
Buček, Aleš Wang, Menglin Šobotník, Jan Hellemans, Simon Sillam-Dussès, David Mizumoto, Nobuaki Stiblík, Petr Clitheroe, Crystal Lu, Tomer González Plaza, Juan José
Buček, Aleš
Wang, Menglin
Šobotník, Jan
Hellemans, Simon
Sillam-Dussès, David
Mizumoto, Nobuaki
Stiblík, Petr
Clitheroe, Crystal
Lu, Tomer
González Plaza, Juan José
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
Termites are major decomposers in terrestrial ecosystems and the second most diverse lineage of social insects. The Kalotermitidae form the second-largest termite family and are distributed across tropical and subtropical ecosystems, where they typically live in small colonies confined to single wood items inhabited by individuals with no foraging abilities. How the Kalotermitidae have acquired their global distribution patterns remains unresolved. Similarly, it is unclear whether foraging is ancestral to Kalotermitidae or was secondarily acquired in a few species. These questions can be addressed in a phylogenetic framework. We inferred time-calibrated phylogenetic trees of Kalotermitidae using mitochondrial genomes of ∼120 species, about 27% of kalotermitid diversity, including representatives of 21 of the 23 kalotermitid genera. Our mitochondrial genome phylogenetic trees were corroborated by phylogenies inferred from nuclear ultraconserved elements derived from a subset of 28 species. We found that extant kalotermitids shared a common ancestor 84 Ma (75–93 Ma 95% highest posterior density), indicating that a few disjunctions among early-diverging kalotermitid lineages may predate Gondwana breakup. However, most of the ∼40 disjunctions among biogeographic realms were dated at <50 Ma, indicating that transoceanic dispersals, and more recently human-mediated dispersals, have been the major drivers of the global distribution of Kalotermitidae. Our phylogeny also revealed that the capacity to forage is often found in early-diverging kalotermitid lineages, implying the ancestors of Kalotermitidae were able to forage among multiple wood pieces. Our phylogenetic estimates provide a platform for critical taxonomic revision and future comparative analyses of Kalotermitidae.
Description
Date
2022-05-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Time-calibrated phylogenetic tree, Historical biogeography, Social evolution, Long distance dispersal, Insects, Molecular clock
Citation
Buček A, Wang M, Šobotník J, Hellemans S, Sillam-Dussès D, Mizumoto N, Stiblík P, Clitheroe C, Lu T, González Plaza JJ, Mohagan A, Rafanomezantsoa JJ, Fisher B, Engel MS, Roisin Y, Evans TA, Scheffrahn R, Bourguignon T. Molecular Phylogeny Reveals the Past Transoceanic Voyages of Drywood Termites (Isoptera, Kalotermitidae). Mol Biol Evol. 2022 May 3;39(5):msac093. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msac093. PMID: 35511685; PMCID: PMC9113494.