Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 15, 1719-1727, Copyright © 1998 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
MS Blouin, CA Yowell, CH Courtney and JB Dame
Only relatively recently have researchers turned to molecular methods for
nematode phylogeny reconstruction. Thus, we lack the extensive literature
on evolutionary patterns and phylogenetic usefulness of different DNA
regions for nematodes that exists for other taxa. Here, we examine the
usefulness of mtDNA for nematode phylogeny reconstruction and provide data
that can be used for a priori character weighting or for parameter
specification in models of sequence evolution. We estimated the
substitution pattern for the mitochondrial ND4 gene from intraspecific
comparisons in four species of parasitic nematodes from the family
Trichostrongylidae (38-50 sequences per species). The resulting pattern
suggests a strong mutational bias toward A and T, and a lower
transition/transversion ratio than is typically observed in other taxa. We
also present information on the relative rates of substitution at first,
second, and third codon positions and on relative rates of saturation of
different types of substitutions in comparisons ranging from intraspecific
to interordinal. Silent sites saturate extremely quickly, presumably owing
to the substitution bias and, perhaps, to an accelerated mutation rate.
Results emphasize the importance of using only the most closely related
sequences in order to infer patterns of substitution accurately for
nematodes or for other taxa having strongly composition-biased DNA. ND4
also shows high amino acid polymorphism at both the intra- and
interspecific levels, and in higher level comparisons, there is evidence of
saturation at variable amino acid sites. In general, we recommend using
mtDNA coding genes only for phylogenetics of relatively closely related
nematode species and, even then, using only nonsynonymous substitutions and
the more conserved mitochondrial genes (e.g., cytochrome oxidases). On the
other hand, the high substitution rate in genes such as ND4 should make
them excellent for population genetics studies, identifying cryptic
species, and resolving relationships among closely related congeners when
other markers show insufficient variation.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Substitution bias, rapid saturation, and the use of mtDNA for nematode systematics
Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331-2914, USA. blouinm@bcc.orst.edu
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