Taxacom: RES: Barcodes and species

[Paulo Buckup]

Hi John,
	The sharing of the same mitochondrion by different species is
theoretically possible under the following conditions:
	1. Hybridization has occurred involving a female of species A and a
male od species B, and a hybrid female descendant is fertile and mates with
other members of species B, successfully spreading its mitochondria among
members of species B.
	2. The spread of mitochondria from the original hybrid into the
entire population of species B occurs very fast, before the mitochondrion
accumulates new mutations.
	The difficulty resides in Step 2. Unless descendants of the hybrid
genotype have a tremendous reproductive advantage, it is unlikely that
mitochondrion A will completely replace mitochondrion B fast enough in
species B. In principle, evolution of barcodes is mostly random, and there
is little selective advantages in (mostly) synonymous third-base codons.
            The alternative, fast speciation with delayed mitochondrial
differentiation, is even more unlikely, because nuclear genes (those that
produce distinct genitalia and white spots) evolve a lot more slowly than
the mitochondrial barcodes.
             Before invoking horizontal transfer of mitochondria, lab
mislabeling and lab contamination must be ruled out. Sometimes minute
contamination is present in lab reagents, but only becomes visible is there
is a species-specific failure of primers - so check for this insidious
problem.

Cheers,

Paulo Buckup
--- 
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-----Mensagem original-----
De: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu] Em nome de John Grehan via
Taxacom
Enviada em: domingo, 19 de maio de 2024 03:07
Para: taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Assunto: Taxacom: Barcodes and species

As I am pretty ignorant of technical details of species designation and
barcode identity, I would be grateful for any feedback on whether it is
possible for two 'species' to have identical 'barcodes' (never liked that
label with its essentialist connotations).

I have a colleague who has collected some ghost moths from the same date and
location. There are two morphs - for simplicity 'white spot' and 'plain'.
Dissections of genitalia also show differences, with the white spot and
plain each showing consistent differences, although only 2 specimens for
white spot and 3 for plain. Even with this small sample I am kind of
intrigued that the external difference matches the internal difference.

The genitalic differences are prominent enough that I would normally view
them as indicative of species difference. Perhaps there is a single
polymorphic species, but correlated external and internal differences were a
bit of a surprise. Any comments or enlightenment would be very welcome.

Cheers, John

--
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