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The Phylogeny of Cockroach Families: Is the Current Molecular Hypothesis Robust?
Author(s) -
Grandcolas Philippe,
D'Haese Cyrille
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
cladistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.323
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1096-0031
pISSN - 0748-3007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2001.tb00110.x
Subject(s) - phylogenetic tree , biology , taxon , cladistics , evolutionary biology , phylogenetics , outgroup , data set , zoology , tree (set theory) , gene , genetics , ecology , statistics , paleontology , mathematics , combinatorics
A recent molecular phylogenetic analysis of cockroaches (Kambhampati, 1996, Syst. Entomol. 21, 89–98) contradicted with phylogenetic studies that were based on morphology. The DNA data set of that study (431–443 bp from 12S rRNA gene) has been reanalyzed by using: (1) the published alignment, (2) the alignment actually used by the author, (3) another alignment based on a cladistic procedure, and (4) a larger number of terminal taxa and different outgroups. The original tree was not retrieved using the analysis parameters of this author and the resulting trees appeared to be highly unstable, depending on changes in alignment and in outgroup or on an increase in the taxon sample size. It is concluded that this DNA data set alone cannot be used currently to draw a robust phylogenetic hypothesis. This data set should be expanded or combined in a more general phylogenetic analysis using all other available data sets. Therefore, the results from other recent analyses, both morphological and molecular, which placed the well‐known subsocial woodroach Cryptocercus in the family Polyphagidae, currently remain the best corroborated phylogenetic hypothesis.