The utility of standardized DNA markers in species delineation and inference of the evolutionary history of symbiotic relationships in the Malagasy ant Melissotarsus insularis Santschi, 1911 and its scale associate (Diaspididae)

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dc.contributor.advisorSmith, M. Alex
dc.contributor.authorLevitsky, Ariel
dc.date.accessioned2013-05-09T16:54:34Z
dc.date.available2013-05-09T16:54:34Z
dc.date.copyright2013-05
dc.date.created2013-04-12
dc.date.issued2013-05-09
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Integrative Biologyen_US
dc.degree.grantorUniversity of Guelphen_US
dc.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen_US
dc.degree.programmeIntegrative Biologyen_US
dc.description.abstractA subset of 199 Melissotarsus insularis and 130 Diaspididae specimens were analyzed to 1) determine the species status of M. insularis and 2) to explore the relative intimacy of the relationship between M. insularis and Diaspididae. An analysis of molecular variance and the observed lack of association between clades and distinct habitats on the M. insularis phylogeny suggested that while M. insularis exhibits isolation by distance, it does not apparently diversify by habitat. When cryptic COI pseudogenes were accounted for, the majority of the genetic diversity exhibited by M. insularis was limited to a divergence of 3% or less suggesting that M. insularis represents a single, albeit broadly distributed, species. A cophylogenetic reconstruction of the relationship between M. insularis and Diaspididae yielded 14 “cospeciation” events but was not significant unlike reconstructions of host-parasite relationships. Analyses of reduced datasets suggested that incomplete taxon sampling may significantly affect cophylogenetic reconstruction results.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation (grants No. DEB-0072713, DEB-0344731 to BLF and DEB-0842395 to BLF and MAS)
dc.description.sponsorshipNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to MAS
dc.description.sponsorshipLeaders Opportunity Fund grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to MAS
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10214/6657
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Guelphen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/*
dc.subjectFormicidaeen_US
dc.subjectMelissotarsus insularisen_US
dc.subjectDiaspididaeen_US
dc.subjectanten_US
dc.subjectscaleen_US
dc.subjectcophylogenyen_US
dc.subjectspecies statusen_US
dc.subjectspecies delineationen_US
dc.subjectsymbiotic relationshipen_US
dc.subjectmutualistic relationshipen_US
dc.subjectCOIen_US
dc.subject12Sen_US
dc.subject28Sen_US
dc.subjecthistone H3en_US
dc.subjectCoRe-PA 0.5.1en_US
dc.subjectGMYCen_US
dc.subjectmolecular taxonomyen_US
dc.subjectbiodiversityen_US
dc.subjectquantifying biodiversityen_US
dc.subjectnatural history collectionsen_US
dc.titleThe utility of standardized DNA markers in species delineation and inference of the evolutionary history of symbiotic relationships in the Malagasy ant Melissotarsus insularis Santschi, 1911 and its scale associate (Diaspididae)en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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