New EPIC nuclear DNA sequence markers to improve the resolution of phylogeographic studies of coenagrionids and other odonates

Sónia Ferreiraa,b,c , M. Olalla Lorenzo-Carballac,d, Yusdiel Torres-Cambase, Adolfo Cordero-Riverad, David J. Thompsonc, Phillip C. Wattsc,f

  1. CIBIO – Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
  2. Departamento de Biologia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua Campo Alegre, Portugal
  3. Institute of Integrative Biology, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  4. Grupo de Ecoloxía Evolutiva e da Conservación, Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Universidade de Vigo, EUE Forestal, Campus Universitario, Pontevedra, Spain
  5. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad de Oriente, Patricio Lumumba s/n, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
  6. Department of Biology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

International Journal of Odonatology, Volume 17, Issue 2-3, Pages 135-147, 2014
https://doi.org/10.1080/13887890.2014.950698
Published: 3 July 2014 (Received: 2 May 2014, Accepted: 25 July 2014)

Abstract

While phylogeographic data provide valuable information to inform conservation plans, there are comparatively few Odonata phylogeographic studies. This lack of research is partially due to a lack of independent DNA markers with appropriate levels of polymorphism that PCR-amplify in a range of species. We followed an exon-primed, intron-crossing (EPIC) PCR strategy to develop five new, polymorphic nuclear DNA sequence loci (six distinct DNA fragments) for the southern damselfly Coenagrion mercuriale. These markers were: cell division cycle 5 protein (CDC5), arginine methyltransferase (PRMT), acetylglucosaminyl-transferase (AgT), myosin light chain (MLC) and phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI). Between three and five of these new markers could be PCR-amplified in five other species from the genus Coenagrion; one locus (PRMT) can be used in 26 other species of odonates that we examined, including three species of Anisoptera belonging to the genus Onychogomphus. These new nuclear genetic markers will be useful for phylogeographic studies in a range of odonate species, but also for phylogenetic studies, providing a particularly useful complement to the existing mitochondrial and nuclear loci.

Keywords: Coenagrionidae, Coenagrion mercuriale, dragonfly, genetic diversity, introns, multilocus approach, non-model organism, nuclear DNA loci, Odonata, phylogeny

Issue section: Article