The use of COI mtDNA sequence to analyse the variability of Peckia (Pattonella) intermutans (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) from southern Brazil

We obtained sequences of 427 bp (base-pairs) of DNA fragments from mitochondrial gene (mtDNA) of cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI), from 34 specimens of Peckia (Pattonella) intermutans (Walker) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae). The fragments were aligned to evaluate the genetic variability among 5 populations from São Paulo (SP) and Bahia (BA) States, Brazil. The phylogenetic analysis of MEGA using Neighbour-Joining and Maximum Parsimony, showed that individuals from Ubatuba (SP) presented greater patterns of divergence than the other populations from SP and BA, suggesting a reduced gene flow, or possibly, a geographical isolation between Ubatuba and all other populations sampled. Moreover, the fact that phylogenetic trees did not resolve the relationship among 4 out of 5 groups of P. (P.) intermutans indicated the need to increase the number of characters to be analyzed, including other mitochondrial or non-mitochondrial genes, since COI proved to be non-suitable for species identification and for characterization of population differentiation among the geographical regions considered in this work, except for Ubatuba. In this case, only the phylogenetic resolution may be useful to validate the process of species-specific identification of this fly of forensic importance in Brazil.