Cophylogenetic relationships between chewing lice (Insecta, Phthiraptera, Ischnocera) and their hosts Galbuliformes (Aves)

• Grant number: 17/02014-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2017
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Carlos José Einicker Lamas
• Grantee: Kamila Mayumi Duarte Kuabara
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/23584-9 - Co-phylogenetic relationships between chewing lice (Insecta, Phthiraptera, Ischnocera) and their hosts (Aves, Galbuliformes), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

When two interacting lineages live in intimate association during much or all or their diversification, it is possible assume that speciation in one group is paralleled to the other. Such diversification mode may result in a pattern of shared evolutionary history between two lineages, known as speciation. Others coevolutionary phenomena such as host-switching, duplication, extinction, "missing the boat", can also influence the association structure of a host-parasite relationship. Chewing lice live their entire life cycle on a single host, this is the reason these insects are used as model for co-evolution studies and host-parasite relationship. The aim of this project is to reconstruct, using molecular tools, the co-phylogenetic history between the species of the chewing lice genera Mayriphilopterus and Picicola (Phthiraptera, Ischnocera, Philopteridae) that parasite Galbuliformes birds. In order to construct the host phylogeny, we will use the database proposed by WITT (2004) and for the parasites we will extract genomic DNA for amplification of fragments from a mitochondrial gene (COI, 379 bp) and a nuclear gene (EF1-±, 379 bp). The material so far available for this study is the most representative when compared with we known for the parasites of Galbuliformes, which guarantees new results worth to be published in a well reputed international journal. (AU)