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.本研究基于等位酶（allozyme）数据（17个基因座）与线粒体DNA（mitochondrial DNA）序列数据（3个基因片段，合计1391个位点），对叶甲属（Gonioctena，鞘翅目Coleoptera，叶甲科Chrysomelidae）开展系统发育分析，以探究该类叶甲的寄主转移演化历程。该叶甲属的典型特征为与众多不同的植物科存在寄主关联。本研究获取的多样分子数据在很大程度上一致性较高，分析结果构建了可信度良好的系统发育假说，可为解答叶甲属寄主转移演化相关问题提供支撑。基于所构建的系统发育树进行祖先寄主关联的最大简约重建，结果显示豆科（Fabaceae）为该叶甲属的原始寄主植物科。尽管叶甲属内多数寄主转移事件（发生于不同寄主物种间）均局限于同一植物科或同一植物属内，但至少有8次转移事件发生于亲缘关系疏远且化学组成差异显著的不同植物科之间。在此类跨科寄主转移事件中，寄主选择或许仅取决于环境中可获取的植物物种。然而，鉴于有两个叶甲属演化支独立定殖了相同的3个新植物科，其中还包含4个相同的新寄主属，这表明可能存在某些限制因素，制约了跨科寄主转移的潜在可能性。