Phylogenetic relationships of the insect order Odonata using COI, 16S rRNA, 28S rRNA and EF1-α sequences

A diverse phylogenetic relationship at several taxonomic levels for the insect order Odonata has been proposed both by morphological and molecular data. This includes the non monophylies of suborder Zygoptera and another suborder Anisoptera, and variable relationships among superfamilies and families. In this study, approximately 3,800 nucleotide sequences from 2 mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase subunit I, COI and 16S ribosomal RNA, 16S rRNA) and 2 nuclear genes (28S rRNA and elongation factor-1 alpha, EF-1á) were sequenced from 71 species of Odonata occurring in Korean peninsula (10 families, 7 superfamilies, and 2 suborders), along with 4 outgroup species (each one species from Hemiptera and Orthoptera, and two from Ephemeroptera). These sequences were subjected to phylogenetic reconstruction via Bayesian Inference (BI), Maximum Likelihood (ML), and Maximum Parsimony (MP) algorithms with several sequence combination such as only with rRNAs, protein-coding genes (PCGs), mitochondrial genes, and nuclear genes. In all analysis the 10 families and 4 superfamilies were shown to be monophyletic with high node support, respectively. On the other hand, majority of analyses has placed the Lestidae belonging to Zygoptera as the basal lineage of Anisoptera, suggesting the possibility of non monophyly of the suborder Zygoptera. Topological test to find out better supported tree further strongly supported non monophyly of Zygoptera, providing higher statistical estimates. As further scrutinized analysis is performed further robust phylogenetic relationships will be provided.