The Phylogenetic Relationship of Lamiinae (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Using Mitochondrial Genomes.

Simple Summary: Lamiinae is the largest subfamily among the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles), and its members are distributed worldwide. The monophyly of Lamiinae is generally recognized, but there are still diverse ideas as to whether the tribes belonging to Lamiinae are monophylic. Ambiguous classification boundaries and the existence of synonyms are major issues leading to controversies over Lamiinae classification. It is not enough to conduct research solely on the morphological characteristics and simple molecular loci of longhorn beetles. Mitochondrial genomes have proven to be reliable markers and can shed more light on phylogenetic relationships among Lamiinae. The present study resolved infra-subfamilial relationships among Lamiinae and provides more mitochondrial data for further phylogenetic research on longhorn beetles. Lamiinae is the largest subfamily of the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles), with approximately 21,863 described species. Previous phylogenetic studies of Lamiinae showed that this subfamily was monophyletic, but the relationship between the tribes of Lamiinae is still controversial. Partial molecular data and species morphological characteristics are not sufficient to resolve species phylogenetic studies perfectly. At the same time, the full mitochondrial genome contains more comprehensive genetic data. Benefiting from the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS), mitochondrial genomes can be easily acquired and used as reliable molecular markers to investigate phylogenetic relationships within Cerambycidae. Using NGS technology, we obtained 11 mitochondrial genome sequences of Lamiinae species. Based on this newly generated mitochondrial genome dataset matrix, we reconstructed the phylogeny of Lamiinae. The Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses strongly support the monophyly of four tribes (Lamiini, Batocerini, Mesosini, and Saperdini), whereas the tribe Acanthocinini was identified as paraphyletic. Other mitochondrial structural features were also observed: the start codon in the nad1 gene of all 11 mitochondrial genomes is TTG; 17–22 bp intergenic spacers (IGS) with a 'TACTA' motif were found between trnS2 and nad1. Moreover, two long IGS were found in Mesosa myops and Batocera sp. Tandem repeats were found in the IGS of Batocera sp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]