Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
The mitochondrial genome is shown to be stable relative to the nuclear genome in most organisms. However, thrips, Thysanoptera (Paraneoptera), are an enigmatic order of minute insects that display extensive gene rearrangement, control region duplications and tRNA mutations. First reported solely in family Thripidae, recent investigations using both suborders and 4 families, with 13 taxa, have shown this rearrangement to be evident across Thysanoptera. Using a 2002 orthologous nuclear loci dated phylogeny, we reconstruct the ancestral sequence rearrangements for 57 thrips taxa from 5 families. Results show evidence towards significant mitochondrial rearrangement dating before the sub-orders Tubulifera and Terebrantia diverged. We demonstrate the need for extensive sampling across more families of Thysanoptera and orders of Paraneoptera to fully understand these phenomena.
