AN ESTIMATE OF PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CULICINE MOSQUITOS USING A RESTRICTION MAP OF THE RDNA CISTRON

Restriction maps of the rDNA cistron of twelve species of mosquitoes i n six genera of the subfamily Culicinae were constructed using eight 6 bp recognition restriction enzymes. Anopheles albimanus was used as a n outgroup. The size of the rDNA cistron ranged from 8.5 kb in Aedes k atherinensis to 12.9 kb in Ae, polynesiensis. A total of twenty-six si tes were scored; eighteen were polymorphic among ingroup taxa. The pro portion of polymorphic nucleotide sites (P-nuc) was 0.059 and the hete rozygosity per nucleotide site (H-nuc) was 0.028, Wagner and Fitch Par simony, Dollo Parsimony and Nei-Li distance/neighbour-joining methods were used to construct phylogenetic trees. The rDNA RFLP dataset did n ot provide a well-supported phylogeny among culicine taxa, The RFLP ph ylogenies are incongruent with the morphology character based and mole cular phylogenies and derived relationships did not correspond with cu rrent taxonomic classifications. The lack of resolution was due to hom oplasy arising from frequent independent loss or gain of restriction s ites among unrelated taxa.