Numts in Meliponini (Hymenoptera: Apidae): genomic prospection, origin and evolution

Abstract

Numts are mitochondrial copies transferred to nucleus, and are recognized by the presence of indels and stop codons. In Meliponini, numts were described in three species, and our preliminary results confirmed the presence of these pseudogenes in other three. The main goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that the origin of the numts found until now in Meliponini are exclusive of the tribe or, alternatively, if their origin is more basal. This way, species of Meliponini representing the entire tribe and species of corbiculate bees will be investigated for the presence of numts. Isolating the mitochondria from nucleus and using probes from mitochondrial genes in the nuclear DNA, it will be possible to isolate the mitochondrial copies located in the nucleus, to characterize the mitochondrial gene and its respective numt, and understand where and when, in a evolutionary context, these events occurred. Numts can be, at the same time, an obstacle and a new tool for evolutionary analysis. To understand the origin and the evolution of these pseudogenes will be important not just for the economic and ecologically important corbiculate bees, but also for several studies that use mitochondrial markers as main molecular marker, as phylogenetic and phylogeographics analysis, population genetics, and molecular identification of species by DNA barcode. (AU)