Human beings, also it would appear, have "an inordinate fondness for beetles" (to cite J.B.S. Haldane), at least an inordinate fondness for the study of this species-rich and life-history diverse lineage of insects. A team led by Dr. Brian Farrell at Harvard University, Dr. Michael Whiting at Brigham Young University, and Dr. David Maddison at the University of Arizona, with colleagues from around the world, will conduct an extensive study of beetle (insect order Coleoptera) phylogeny to provide the first broad scale view of beetle diversification. With ca. 350,000 described species, beetles comprise a huge fraction of the world's biota and are dominant in every terrestrial ecosystem. Beetles represent the most diverse and rapid radiation of any terrestrial organismal group, yet we have only a rudimentary knowledge of their deeper level phylogeny, and still do not understand even their most basic patterns of diversity. Collectively, beetles represent nearly every feeding habit among insects including herbivory and fungivory (feeding upon fungi), saprophagy (feeding upon decaying matter), predation and parasitism, and a thorough study of their evolutionary history would provide insight into the role of feeding habits in species diversity. The team of 40 leading beetle researchers worldwide, with expertise in nearly every beetle lineage, proposes to construct a framework phylogeny (genealogical tree) for all beetles, utilizing a 3-tier approach. Tier 1: 54 exemplar species, representing all major beetle lineages, will be sampled extensively for character data (morphology plus 23kb of DNA sequence data including complete mitochondrial genomes) to provide a robust outline of the relationships among the major (superfamily) groups of beetles. Tier 2: 300 additional species will sampled for morphology and 12kb of sequence data to establish relationships among beetle families. Tier 3: 3000 additional species will be sequenced for 1.5 kb of DNA sequence data, with morphology added for a subset of these, to better characterize the grand diversity of beetle phylogeny at the subfamilial level. Novel bioinformatics tools will be developed to streamline data processing for the molecular and morphological data, and will allow for greater efficiency, accuracy, and reproducibility of the data and associated results, while providing an online framework for collaboration by participants throughout the world. This represents the first time that coleopterists have collaborated on such a large-scale phylogenetic project, and the work should result in a robust estimate of beetle phylogeny that will provide a predictive basis for classification and integration of information on this ecologically and economically important group of insects. Information on all aspects of beetles will be disseminated through the Tree-of-Life website hosted at the University of Arizona, a traveling Spanish-language / English-language museum exhibit, and through publications and symposia. This research will provide training for graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students, including 10 female researchers and an undergraduate student with disabilities.
Beetles comprise the largest single branch in the Tree of Life. Since they arose in the Lower Permian, they have undergone an explosive radiation into more than 350,000 species, or one-quarter of described organisms. In species numbers, beetles dominate most terrestrial ecosystems. However, we still have only fragmentary knowledge about how the major groups of beetles evolved and how they are related to each other. The Brigham Young University portion of the NSF funding was used to investigate the evolution of the mitochondrial genome across all major beetle groups and to unravel the phylogenetic relationships among one of the major beetle groups, the Cucujoidea. Over the course of this project, we generated the entire mitochondrial genome for 75 beetle species, resulting in the most comprehensive data set for any insect group. We found that the evolution of the mitochondrial genome in beetles is much more complex than originally anticipated, with patterns and rates of mutations that have varied across the evolution of the entire group. We found that current methods that rely on only portions of the mitochondrial genome to reconstruct evolutionary history are likely to provide misleading results, and our work provides greater caution in how these data should be interpreted. Additionally, because mutations in the mitochondria have been linked to multiple cancers in humans, any research that elucidates mitochondrial DNA evolution directly impacts ongoing medical research. Cucujoidea is a large group of beetles that includes lady bugs, flat bark beetles, sap beetles, a variety of fungus beetles, and many other groups. Evolutionary relationships among these beetles were unknown prior to this work. We generated extensive DNA sequence data set for a large sample of species. This resulted in a well-supported hypothesis for the evolutionary relationships among these species. This evolutionary tree allows us to test hypotheses about how these species became so diverse, and specifically how they were able to switch between so many distinct food sources. Because many of these beetles are economically important pest species, and some are used as natural biocontrol agents, this evolutionary tree will help better inform decisions about how to manage these species. As a result of this funding, we supported the training of 2 postdoctoral researchers, 4 graduate students, and 21 undergraduates. The postdoctoral researchers have gone on to tenure track positions at other institutions, the graduate students have completed their degrees and advanced to become postdoctoral researchers, and 16 of the undergraduates are either in graduate programs or are completing their undergraduate degree and preparing for graduate school. This funding supported the work of five Polynesian students who were given an exciting hands-on experience with science.
