DNA Barcoding of genus Hexacentrus in China reveals cryptic diversity within Hexacentrus japonicus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae).

Zhi-Jun Zhou,Bei Guan,Fu-Ming Shi,Hui-Fang Guo

doi:10.3897/zookeys.596.8669

Abstract

DNA barcoding has been proved successful to provide resolution beyond the boundaries of morphological information. Hence, a study was undertaken to establish DNA barcodes for all morphologically determined Hexacentrus species in China collections. In total, 83 specimens of five Hexacentrus species were barcoded using standard mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Except for Hexacentrus japonicus, barcode gaps were present in the remaining Hexacentrus species. Taxon ID tree generated seven BOLD’s barcode index numbers (BINs), four of which were in agreement with the morphological species. For Hexacentrus japonicus, the maximum intraspecific divergence (4.43%) produced a minimal overlap (0.64%), and 19 specimens were divided into three different BINs. There may be cryptic species within the current Hexacentrus japonicus. This study adds to a growing body of DNA barcodes that have become available for katydids, and shows that a DNA barcoding approach enables the identification of known Hexacentrus species with a very high resolution.

Highlights

DNA barcoding employs short, standardized gene regions (5' segment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I for animals) as an internal tag to enable metazoan species identification (Hebert et al 2003). Schmidt et al (2015) found that DNA barcoding largely supported 250 years of classical taxonomy for central European bees
c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences were translated to amino acid sequences to check for stop codons and shifts in reading frame that might indicate the presence of nuclear mitochondrial copies, but none were detected
The present study evaluated the efficacy of using DNA barcodes for the identification of Hexacentrus in China and provided a group of sequences associated with the identified species

Summary

Introduction

DNA barcoding employs short, standardized gene regions (5' segment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I for animals) as an internal tag to enable metazoan species identification (Hebert et al 2003). Schmidt et al (2015) found that DNA barcoding largely supported 250 years of classical taxonomy for central European bees. Our objective is to assess the utility of DNA barcoding for closely related katydid species, belonging to the genus Hexacentrus (Serville, 1831) in China. (ii) For Tettigoniidae taxonomists, it contributes to integrative taxonomic approaches, such as the elucidation of related species and clarification of problematic species groups, association of the sexes within one species, and the identification of new species (Gibbs 2009, 2011, Packer et al 2009, Schmidt et al 2015) To this end, we checked for the presence of species barcode gaps and cryptic diversity within species. BOLD’s barcode index number (BIN) analysis tool (Ratnasingham and Hebert 2013) was used to analyze Hexacentrus

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