Deep Metazoan Phylogeny: Hexapoda/Pterygota

昆虫是迄今为止地球上最成功的动物群体。波普兰修改和生态适应的辐射达到了无可挑战的多样性。最有影响的昆虫保护计划的修改发生在无翼类昆虫向翼类昆虫过渡的过程中和之后。关键问题(和过渡)涉及：(一)翅膀的发明，(二)新翅目(具有弯曲翅膀的昆虫)的起源和(三)全息代谢的起源(完全变态)。不幸的是，进化变化的方向和重要的多样化转移的位置仍然难以捉摸，因为昆虫目之间的深层系统发育关系尚未解决。对这种情况的一个潜在解释是，分歧发生在有限的时间框架内。这种情况伴随着寻找有用的分子标记来准确追踪这些古老的短节间的重大挑战。该项目是一种综合方法(I)汇编不同遗传和基因组组织层面的分子遗传数据，以及(Ii)开发和应用新的生物信息学工具和算法，以改进数据分析和--最重要的--数据质量评估。将对所有翼状亚纲的代表性样本进行分析，重点放在最基本的目上。由于传统的单靶标基因和多基因比对的系统发育分析还不能最终解决基本的翼类关系，除了多基因EST方法外，我们还将检查发育和呼吸基因、完整的线粒体基因组和rRNA基因的二级结构形态。这项研究是DFG优先项目“深部后生动物系统学”的一部分。这项建议的所有数据集都是在以下目标下产生的：(1)节肢动物和(2)原口动物谱系的比较系统发育研究的综合部分。

Insects are by far the most successful animal group on earth. Radiation of bauplan modifications and ecological adaptations reach an unchallenged diversity. The most influential insect bauplan modifications took place during and after the transition from apterygote to pterygote insects. Key questions (and transitions) relate to: (i) the invention of wings, (ii) the origin of Neoptera (insects with wing flexion) and (iii) the origin of Holometabola (complete metamorphosis). Unfortunately, directions of evolutionary change and locations of important diversification shifts are still elusive since deep phylogenetic relationships between insect orders are not yet resolved. One potential explanation for this situation is that the divergences took place within a limited time frame. This circumstance is accompanied by the major challenge in finding useful molecular markers tracking accurately these short ancient internodes. This project is a combined approach (i) to compile molecular genetic data at different levels of genetic and genomic organization and (ii) to develop and apply new bioinformatics tools and algorithm to improve data analyses and – most important – data quality assessment. A representative sampling of all pterygote infraclasses will be analyzed with a special focus on the most basal orders. Since phylogenetic analyses of traditional single target genes as well as multiple gene alignments have not yet been able to conclusively resolve basal pterygote relationships we will also examine – in addition to multigene EST-approaches - developmental and respiratory genes, complete mitochondrial genomes, and secondary structure morphologies of rRNA genes. This study is part of the DFG priority program “Deep Metazoan Phylogeny”. All data sets of this proposal are generated under the goal to be an integrative part of comparative phylogenetic studies in the (i) Arthropoda and (ii) consequently the Protostomia lineages.