Data from: Phylogenetic Analyses of DNA and Allozyme Data Suggest that Gonioctena Leaf Beetles (Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae) Experienced Convergent Evolution in their History of Host-Plant Family Shifts

A phylogenetic analysis of the genus Gonioctena (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) based on allozyme data (17 loci) and mitochondrial DNA sequence data (three gene fragments, 1,391 sites) was performed to study the evolutionary history of host-plant shifts among these leaf beetles. This chrysomelid genus is characteristically associated with a high number of different plant families. The diverse molecular data gathered in this study are to a large extent congruent, and the analyses provide a well-supported phylogenetic hypothesis to address questions about the evolution of host-plant shifts in the genus Gonioctena. The most-parsimonious reconstruction of the ancestral host-plant associations, based on the estimated phylogeny, suggests that the Fabaceae was the ancestral host-plant family of the genus. Although most of the host-plant shifts (between different host species) in Gonioctena have occurred within the same plant family or within the same plant genus, at least eight shifts have occurred between hosts belonging to distantly related and chemically dissimilar plant families. In these cases, host shifts may have been simply directed toward plant species available in the environment. Yet, given that two Gonioctena lineages have independently colonized the same three new plant families, including four of the same new genera, some constraints are likely to have limited the different possibilities of interfamilial host-plant shifts.本研究基于同工酶（allozyme）数据（含17个位点）与线粒体DNA序列数据（3个基因片段，共计1391个比对位点），对萤叶甲属（Gonioctena，鞘翅目Coleoptera，叶甲科Chrysomelidae）开展系统发育分析，旨在探究该属叶甲的寄主植物转换演化历程。该属叶甲的典型特征为可寄生于多个不同的植物科。本研究收集的多组分子数据在较大程度上具有一致性，系统发育分析结果为解析萤叶甲属的寄主植物转换演化问题提供了支持度良好的系统发育假说。基于所构建的系统发育树进行的祖先寄主关联最简约重建结果显示，豆科（Fabaceae）是该属的祖先寄主植物科。尽管萤叶甲属内的多数寄主植物转换（发生于不同寄主物种之间）均局限于同一植物科或同一植物属内，但至少有8次转换发生于亲缘关系较远且化学组成差异显著的不同植物科之间。此类跨科寄主转换可能仅由环境中可获取的植物物种所驱动。然而，鉴于有2个萤叶甲支系独立定殖了相同的3个新植物科，其中还包含4个相同的新属，表明存在一定的限制性因素，制约了跨科寄主植物转换的潜在可能性。