螽亚目昆虫的分子系统发生关系和声通讯的演化

Ensifera, a suborder of Orthoptera in Insecta, encompasses about 10,000 species including commonly known crickets and katydids. During their intra-specific interactions including courtship, acoustic communication plays an important role. Stridulation and hearing structures involved in acoustic communication are both variable among major ensiferan lineages. For example, stridulation structures include tegminal and femoro-abdominal apparatuses. Origin and diversification of acoustic communication in Ensifera (e.g. one or multiple origins; stridulation or hearing structures occurred first) have attracted much attention but are still not agreed among taxonomists. Such disputes are mainly caused by lack of a consistent and solid phylogeny of Ensifera...The present study aims first to sequence mitochondrial genomes from an extensive taxon sampling of major lineages in Ensifera, advancing our knowledge on diversities of ensiferan mitochondrial genomes. The dataset will be used to reconstruct phylogeny of Ensifera, which can greatly contribute to our understanding on the phylogenetic relationships of Ensifera. This phylogeny can provide new insights into the evolution of acoustic communication. Our study could therefore offer important evidence for morphology evolution of organisms.

螽亚目隶属于昆虫纲直翅目，包含约1万个物种，常见的有蟋蟀、螽斯等。在这些昆虫种内交流（如求偶）的过程中，声通讯发挥了重要作用。参与声通讯的结构主要包括摩擦发声和听觉系统，两者在螽亚目昆虫中都具有多样性，例如发声方式有前复翅摩擦发声、后足腿节–腹部摩擦发声等。对于声通讯在螽亚目中的起源和演化问题（例如单次起源还是多次起源，摩擦发声和听觉系统谁先出现），以往学者提出了截然不同的观点，导致这种分歧的主要原因是螽亚目高级阶元的分类系统及其系统发生关系迄今还没有统一的认识。. 本课题旨在利用线粒体基因组这一分子标记，对螽亚目内主要类群的代表性物种进行大规模取样测序，增进人们对螽亚目线粒体基因组多样性的认识；在线粒体谱系基因组学的水平上，构建螽亚目内主要类群的系统进化树，完善螽亚目高级阶元的分类系统及进化关系。在此基础上，揭示声通讯在螽亚目的起源和演化规律，为深入研究生物的形态演化提供依据。