Phylogenetics of Aphelinus inferred from next-generation sequencing data

Aphelinus (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) is a parasitic wasp genus that has strong ties to biological control programs. Phylogenetic reconstructions of this genus are in need in order to better understand the evolutionary relationships among species in Aphelinus. With information about these relationships, more accurate taxonomic decisions can be made. Phylogenetic relationships among three species groups in Aphelinus were inferred using parsimony analyses with next generation sequencing data. First, a parsimony analysis with reduced representation libraries (RRL) was conducted with 325,555 SNPs representing approximately 5-10% of the genome. These results were then compared to a subsequent parsimony analysis in which 2,897,147 SNPs from approximately 22,000-35,000 putative protein-coding genes were used, representing approximately 90% of the structural genome. Robust monophyly was found in and between species groups in both analyses. In the analyses with RRL, the majority of terminal OTU’s sit on branches that are extremely long when compared to the length of the internal nodes, which differs from what was found in the putative genes parsimony analysis cladogram. These phylogenetic analyses lay a preliminary phylogenetic framework for the classification of Aphelinus.