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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 19(5)

Relationships among the three major lineages of the Acari (Arthropoda : Arachnida) inferred from small subunit rRNA: paraphyly of the Parasitiformes with respect to the Opilioacariformes and relative rates of nucleotide substitution

Anna Murrell A B , Susan J. Dobson A C , David E. Walter D E , Nick J. H. Campbell A F , Renfu Shao A G and Stephen C. Barker A H
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A Parasitology Section, School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.

B Present address: 187 Kentucky St, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia.

C Present address: 22 Browning Road, West Moonah, Tasmania 7009, Australia.

D Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.

E Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9 Canada.

F Current address: Nature Publishing Group, The Macmillan Building, 4 Crinan St, London, N1 9XW, UK.

G Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuyama University, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, 729-0292, Japan.

H Corresponding author. Email: s.barker@uq.edu.au

Invertebrate Systematics 19(5) 383-389 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS05027
Submitted: 18 June 2005  Accepted: 16 September 2005   Published: 12 December 2005

Abstract

We inferred phylogeny among the three major lineages of the Acari (mites) from the small subunit rRNA gene. Our phylogeny indicates that the Opilioacariformes is the sister-group to the Ixodida+Holothyrida, not the Ixodida+Mesostigmata+Holothyrida, as previously thought. Support for this relationship increased when sites with the highest rates of nucleotide substitution, and thus the greatest potential for saturation with nucleotide substitutions, were removed. Indeed, the increase in support (and resolution) was despite a 70% reduction in the number of parsimony-informative sites from 408 to 115. This shows that rather than ‘noisy’ sites having no impact on resolution of deep branches, ‘noisy’ sites have the potential to obscure phylogenetic relationships. The arrangement, Ixodida+Holothyrida+Opilioacariformes, however, may be an artefact of long-branch attraction since relative-rate tests showed that the Mesostigmata have significantly faster rates of nucleotide substitution than other parasitiform mites. Thus, the fast rates of nucleotide substitution of the Mesostigmata might have caused the Mesostigmata to be attracted to the outgroup in our trees. We tested the hypothesis that the high rate of nucleotide substitution in some mites was related to their short generation times. The Acari species that have high nucleotide substitution rates usually have short generation times; these mites also tend to be more active and thus have higher metabolic rates than other mites. Therefore, more than one factor may affect the rate of nucleotide substitution in these mites.

Additional keywords: phylogeny, relative substitution rates, SSU rRNA.


Acknowledgments

We thank Heather Proctor for helpful discussions and Maree Schabe for help with the format of the manuscript. R.S. is a postdoctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This work was supported by an Australian Research Council grant to S.C.B.


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