ABSTRACT

The genus Amblyomma Koch, 1844, is distributed in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania and is currently represented by 139 valid species, half of which are endemic to the Americas. This group of ticks has considerable ecological, economic, and public health importance. However, although many sequences and other information are available, investigations have been performed in isolated clades, and the evolutionary relationships of the genus Amblyomma are not evident. This study presents the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Amblyomma in America using probabilistic methods (Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference). Partial sequences of five genes (four mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene) from 69 species of Amblyomma were concatenated. Within the genus, some species have been described as endangered, mainly due to the status of their main host. In this study, sequences for the endangered species A. albopictum Neumann, 1899; A. macfarlandi Keirans, Hoogstraal and Clifford, 1973; and A. usingeri Keirans, Hoogstraal and Clifford, 1973, were determined for the first time. Although many phylogenetic relationships had strong statistical support, molecular data from different species must be increased to achieve better phylogenetic estimates in future studies.

摘要

Amblyomma Koch属，1844 年，分布于美洲、非洲、亚洲和大洋洲，目前有 139 种有效种，其中一半是美洲特有种。这组蜱具有相当大的生态、经济和公共卫生重要性。然而，尽管可以获得许多序列和其他信息，但在孤立的进化枝中进行了调查，Amblyomma属的进化关系并不明显。本研究使用概率方法（最大似然和贝叶斯推理）展示了美国Amblyomma属的系统发育关系。69种Amblyomma的5个基因（4个线粒体基因和1个核基因）的部分序列被连接在一起。在该属中，一些物种被描述为濒危物种，主要是由于其主要宿主的地位。在这项研究中，濒危物种A. albopictum Neumann 的序列，1899；A. macfarlandi Keirans，Hoogstraal 和 Clifford，1973 年；和A. usingeri Keirans、Hoogstraal 和 Clifford，1973 年首次被确定。尽管许多系统发育关系具有强大的统计支持，但必须增加来自不同物种的分子数据，以在未来的研究中实现更好的系统发育估计。