The evolution and genomic basis of beetle diversity

Since these groups are among the most diverse beetles representing nearly half of all living beetle species the authors of the study are convinced that these events were among the most important triggers for the successful evolution of beetles.

Plant cell wall-degrading enzymes appear to have been key to the Mesozoic diversification of herbivorous beetles. Remarkably this incorporation of genes occurred in two independent events.

These enabled efficient digestion of plant tissues, including lignocellulose in cell walls, facilitating the evolution of uniquely specialized plant-feeding habits, such as leaf mining and wood boring.

Furthermore, the phylogenomic analyses of the team resolved previously controversial beetle relationships and dated the origin of Coleoptera to the Carboniferous.

Beetle diversity thus appears to have resulted from multiple factors, including a low rate of lineage extinction over a long evolutionary history, codiversification with angiosperms, and adaptive radiations of specialized herbivorous beetles following convergent horizontal transfers of microbial genes encoding plant cell wall-degrading enzymes.

The results of this paper underscore the intimacy and complexity of the evolutionary relationships between insects, plants, and microorganisms and show how analyses of large-scale genomic data are revealing the evolution and genomic basis of insect biodiversity.

Source: Quelle: The evolution and genomic basis of beetle diversity. Authors
Duane D. McKenna, Seunggwan Shin, Dirk Ahrens, Michael Balke, Cristian Bezaa, Dave J. Clarke, Alexander Donath, Hermes E. Escalona, Frank Friedrich, Harald Letsch, Shanlin Liu, David Maddison, Christoph Mayer, Bernhard Misof, Peyton J. Murin, Oliver Niehuis, Ralph S. Peters, Lars Podsiadlowski, Hans Pohl, Erin D. Scully, Evgeny V. Yan, Xin Zhou, Adam Slipinski and Rolf G. Beutel.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1909655116

Contact: Dr. Dirk Ahrens

Head oft Department Arthropoda
Head of Section
Curator
Coleoptera
Tel: +49 228 9122-286
Fax: +49 228 9122-212
Mail: d.ahrens@leibniz-zfmk.de

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1909655116

Media Contact

Sabine Heine idw - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

More Information:

http://www.zfmk.de

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Distance learning can improve women’s access to vocational training as animal health care practitioners in Nepal. Image Credit: Heifer International

Hybrid Job Training Boosts Women’s Participation in Nepal

Globally, women’s workforce participation is about 25% lower than men’s, often due to barriers such as domestic responsibilities and cultural norms. Vocational training can increase employment opportunities, but women may…

CO2release increase under repeated drying-rewetting cycles (DWCs). Image Credit: Suzuki, Nagano et al., 2025 SOIL

Drying and Rewetting Cycles Boost Soil CO2 Emissions

Niigata, Japan – The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by microbial decomposition of soil organic carbon on a global scale is approximately five times greater than the amount of…

A new drug delivery system shows promise for treating a rare, aggressive form of cancer affecting pregnant women and new mothers. Oregon State's Olena Taratula and collaborators including OSU postdoctoral researcher Babak Mamnoon and Maureen Baldwin, a physician at Oregon Health & Science University, designed a type of drug nanocarrier known as a polymersome to specifically target a protein in choriocarcinoma cells. Depicted is a polymersome with its methotrexate cargo. Illustration by Parinaz Ghanbari. Image Credit: Parinaz Ghanbari

Improved Treatment Method for Rare Pregnancy-Related Cancer

PORTLAND, Ore. – A new drug delivery system shows promise for treating a rare, aggressive form of cancer affecting pregnant women and new mothers, and it has potential with other…