DISAMPING KANAN INI.............
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Studi
kemajuan 'revolusi DNA '
menceritakan sejarah evolusi kupu-kupu
Dengan
menelusuri hampir 3.000 gen moyang awal kupu-kupu dan ngengat, para ilmuwan telah
menciptakan "Tree of Lepidoptera" dalam studi pertama untuk
menggunakan skala besar, generasi berikutnya dari DNA sequencing.
Study advances 'DNA revolution,' tells butterflies' evolutionary history
Date:
July 31,
2014
Source:
University of Florida
Summary:
By tracing nearly 3,000 genes to the earliest common
ancestor of butterflies and moths, scientists have created an extensive “Tree
of Lepidoptera” in the first study to use large-scale, next-generation DNA
sequencing.
....................
By tracing nearly 3,000 genes to the earliest common
ancestor of butterflies and moths, University of Florida scientists have created
an extensive "Tree of Lepidoptera" in the first study to use
large-scale, next-generation DNA sequencing.
Among the
study's more surprising findings: Butterflies are more closely related to small
moths than to large ones, which completely changes scientists' understanding of
how butterflies evolved. The study also found that some insects once classified
as moths are actually butterflies, increasing the number of butterfly species
higher than previously thought.
"This
project advances biodiversity research by providing an evolutionary foundation
for a very diverse group of insects, with nearly 160,000 described
species," said Akito Kawahara, lead author and assistant curator of
Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. "With
a tree, we can now understand how the majority of butterfly and moth species
evolved."
Available
online and to be published in the August print edition of the Proceedings of
the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the study builds the evolutionary
framework for future ecological and genetics research of insects, Kawahara
said.
"There
is a DNA revolution taking place," Kawahara said. "This is an
important time in the history of science when we can use DNA sequencing on a
very large scale."
Kawahara
said the yearlong study is one of the first to utilize a massive amount of
genetic data to answer questions about the history of butterflies and moths.
The analysis reveals monumental discoveries about the lineage of Lepidoptera,
including strongly contradicting the traditional placement of butterflies in
evolutionary history, Kawahara said.
Using
next-generation sequencing, a method used to rapidly process large amounts of
DNA, scientists developed an initial sample of 46 species that represent many
of the most bio diverse groups of moths and butterflies. They also combined 33
new transcriptomes, a set of RNA molecules, with 13 genomes, both of which hold
genetic material for organisms. The researchers identified 2,696 genes by
breaking down the DNA down and piecing it back together, Kawahara said.
Daniel
Rubinoff, entomologist and director of the University of Hawaii Insect Museum,
said the new study will help scientists conclusively pinpoint where butterflies
belong in evolutionary history -- a question that has long troubled
researchers.
"This
study adds to a growing body of knowledge by bringing new techniques to the
table and conclusively demonstrating the evolutionary relationships of the most
popular insects on the planet," Rubinoff said. "The methods are novel
and build on previous work. This is clearly the future of deep-level
evolutionary research."
The wispy,
delicate nature of butterflies and moths is part of their charm, but their
soft-bodied larval stages have posed a problem for scientists studying them in
the fossil record. In the current study, scientists aimed to better understand
an evolutionary history that morphological analysis and the fossil record has
fallen short of firmly establishing, said Jesse Breinholt, co-author and a
postdoctoral researcher with the Florida Museum.
"The
few Lepidoptera fossils we have are from about 15 million years ago,"
Breinholt said. "The next step is to create a dated evolutionary history
for the group, from the earliest ancestors to present day."
Previous
research based on anatomical features hypothesized that butterflies are close
relatives of large moths, but the new tree suggests butterflies are more
closely related to small (micro) moths, Kawahara said. The study also suggests
butterflies are the ancestral group to the tens of thousands of moth species on
the planet, and the Hedylidae family, commonly known as American
butterfly-moths, were dismissed as moths and found to be true butterflies.
The tree
also provides a baseline to test whether diurnal, or daytime, activity, a
common butterfly trait, evolved much earlier than scientists previously
believed, possibly at a time when bats' spread across the planet, as a means of
escaping these and other nocturnal predators, Kawahara said.
Future
research will investigate the causes of evolutionary transitions, such as
diurnal activity, across Lepidoptera. Breinholt said although the new tree
clarifies our understanding of butterfly and moth relationships, many lineages
still need to be examined.
"I hope
this is a starting point for larger studies that account for the great
diversity of Lepidoptera," Breinholt said.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by University of Florida. The original article was written
by Stephenie Livingston. Note: Materials may be edited for content and
length.
Journal
Reference:
- A. Y. Kawahara, J. W. Breinholt. Phylogenomics provides strong evidence for relationships of butterflies and moths. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2014; 281 (1788): 20140970 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0970