Phylogenetic Analysis of the Economically Important Hymenopterans using cytochrome oxidase 1 Enzyme Sequences

Hymenoptera is the fourth diverse and the most economically important insect order comprising of bees, wasps, ants, sawflies etc. Being an important part of ecosystem, their conservation is of utmost importance. The first step towards conservation strategies is the identification of the species. The traditional morphological approach can sometimes lead to misidentification due to a lack of expertise. DNA barcoding using the small genomic fragments has been identified as an efficient tool in the identification as well as the phylogenetic analysis of the species. In the present study, we used the COI gene sequences as a tool for the characterization of Hymenoptera from different parts of the Jammu region. The collected samples were proceeded for the isolation of DNA, PCR for amplification of the COI gene, and then sequenced by Sanger dideoxy method. A total of 22 COI sequences belonging to 18 different species were successfully generated. Among which eight species sequences (Tachytes sp., Bombus trifasciatus, Rhynchium carnaticum, Ropalidia brevita, Lasioglossum marginatum, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Tapinoma melanocephalum, Formica rufibarbis) are the novel contribution in the global database. NJ tree using the K2P model with 1000 bootstrap supporting values has been used to study the phylogeny of the species. Sequence analysis shows high AT content (67-77%) in the COI region of Hymenopterans. The generated COI sequence analysis also revealed less than 1% intra-specific divergence in the examined taxa, while the interspecific distances ranged between 8% to 38%. This study added significantly to the databases of DNA barcodes of Hymenopterans species from Jammu region.