Mitochondrial DNA intra-individual variation in a bumblebee species: A challenge for evolutionary studies and molecular identification

Autor(es)

Ricardo, Paulo Cseri ^[1] ; Francoso, Elaine ^[1] ; Arias, Maria Cristina ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Genet & Biol Evolut, Inst Biociencias, Rua Matao 277, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: MITOCHONDRION; v. 53, p. 243-254, JUL 2020.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) regions have been widely used as molecular markers in evolutionary studies and species identification. However, the presence of heteroplasmy and NUMTs may represent obstacles. Heteroplasmy is a state where an organism has different mitochondrial haplotypes. NUMTs are nuclear pseudogenes originating from mtDNA sequences transferred to nuclear DNA. Evidences of heteroplasmy were already verified in the bumblebee Bombus mono in an earlier study. The present work investigated in more detail the presence of infra-individual haplotypes variation in this species. Heteroplasmy was detected in individuals from all the ten sampled locations, with an average of six heteroplasmic haplotypes per individual. In addition, some of these heteroplasmic haplotypes were shared among individuals from different locations, suggesting the existence of stable heteroplasmy in B. mono. These results demonstrated that heteroplasmy is likely to affect inferences based on mtDNA analysis, especially in phylogenetic, phylogeographic and population genetics studies. In addition, NUMTs were also detected. These sequences showed divergence of 2.7% to 12% in relation to the mitochondrial haplotypes. These levels of divergence could mislead conclusions in evolutionary studies and affect species identification through DNA barcoding. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 16/24669-5 - Estudos genômicos e evolutivos em abelhas
• Beneficiário: Maria Cristina Arias
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 14/25023-6 - Numts em Meliponini (Hymenoptera: Apidae): prospecção genômica, origem e evolução
• Beneficiário: Elaine Aparecida Françoso
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 13/12530-4 - Estudos populacionais, evolutivos e genômicos em abelhas
• Beneficiário: Maria Cristina Arias
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular