Prospects for using transcriptomic data to expand the evidence for family level relationships in Calyptratae (Diptera)

Our understanding of the phylogeny of many lineages of flies (Diptera) has increased dramatically since the addition of nucleotide data from gene by gene molecular phylogenetic analyses. This exacerbates the rare instances where multi gene phylogenies fail to clarify the relationships among certain areas of the evolutionary tree of flies. A major example of this is in the calyptrate superfamilies Muscoidea and Oestroidea. Large collaborative research endeavors from several lab groups have not found support for the interfamily relationships, or for the monophyly for Muscoidea and 5 of the ~12 families. The importance of these flies in medical, forensic, veterinary, agricultural, and biocontrol fields highlights our need to improve our knowledge of areas of their evolutionary history where phylogenetic resolution is intransigent using available data types. I will then discuss how transcriptomes may provide phylogenetic data capable of providing support and resolution in these troublesome areas. I will use transcriptomes to address this complex problem. At least one species of every major calyptrate family has a transcriptome in progress, and I will explore how transcriptomes provide phylogenetic data capable of providing support and resolution in these troublesome areas.