New insight on the taxonomic identification of Clinopodes flavidus (Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae) using genetic data

Background and Aim: Recent decades were a time for progress in reconstruction of animal phylogenetics and it was because of development of molecular methods and availability of molecular data such as DNA, RNA and protein sequences. In case of Chilopoda, morphological, molecular and in some cases behavioral evidences were used. Previous studies revealed that Clinopodes flavidus is among the abundant species in Alborz Mountains and this fact make it a good candidate for molecular studies. The purpose of the present study is to explore the genetic identity of C. flavidus in Alborz Mountains.Methods: For molecular study, mitochondrial protein-encoding (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, COI) was selected, as this marker has been shown to be informative in previous studies of centipedes. The specimens were collected in ۹۶% ethanol from Alborz Mountains (from previous studies) and DNA was extracted from a piece of some segments of ۱۰ specimens. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out using universal primers for the COI gene. Additional ۲۲ COI sequences belonging to four genera of family Geophilidae (Pachymerium, Stenotaenia, Geophilus and Clinopodes), were obtained from GenBank as complementary data. Phylogenetic tree was constructed using MrBayes and PhyML.Results: Both probabilistic methods, Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Baysian Inference (BI) trees, showed similar topology indicating C. flavidus as a complex and paraphyletic species with three distinct clades. Iranian haplotype was closely related with C. intermedius, being together the sister clade of C. carinthiacus. These clades consequently make a sister clade for the Italian haplotype, while Romanian haplotypes appeared as a sister clade of the all aforementioned clades.Conclusion: Therefore, C. falvidus is evidently a polytypic complex species. Whether this situation persists or not should be investigated with more data including nuclear genes since mitochondrial introgression might reveal wrong signal.

Keywords:

Chilopoda , genetic distances , paraphyly