Phylogenetic relationships within terrestrial mites (Acari : Prostigmata, Parasitengona) inferred from comparative DNA sequence analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene

Partial DNA and amino acid sequences translated from the mitochondrial cyto chrome subunit I gene (408 bp) of 17 mite species have been used for analyz ing the phylogenetic relationships within the terrestrial Parasitengona (Tr ombidia). Due to mutational saturation of the third codon position, only fi rst and second codon positions and amino acid sequences were analyzed, appl ying neighbor;joining, maximum-parsimony, and maximum-likelihood tree-build ing methods. The reconstructed trees revealed similar topologies of taxa; h owever, the phylogenetic relationships could be convincingly resolved only within several trombidioid taxa. The proposed basic relationships within th e Parasitengona, in particular those of Calyptostomatoidea, Smarididae, and Erythraeidae, were poorly supported in bootstrap tests. A comparison of th e presented gene tree with a phylogenetic tree based upon traditional chara cters revealed only few contradictions in nodes only weakly supported by mo rphological data. The most astonishing result is the proposed early derivat ive position of Microtrombidiidae within the terrestrial Parasitengona. (C) 2001 Academic Press.