Morpho-molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Relationship of Tapinoma indicum Forel from Metropolitan  Area

Li Yang Lim; Abdul Hafiz  Ab Majid

doi:10.55230/mabjournal.v51i6.2239

Authors

Li Yang Lim Household & Structural Urban Entomology Laboratory, Vector Control Research Unit, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abdul Hafiz Ab Majid
abdhafiz@usm.my
Household & Structural Urban Entomology Laboratory, Vector Control Research Unit, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Keywords:

Tapinoma indicum, household ants, morphology, phylogeny, CO1, 16S rDNA

Abstract

Tapinoma indicum Forel is one of the most abundant nuisance pests found in Penang Island, Malaysia. However, limited research has been done on T. indicum, especially in the molecular genetic field. This paper aims to collect T. indicum from three districts in Penang Island, Malaysia including George Town, Gelugor, Balik Pulau, characterize T. indicum based on morphological measurements and molecular characterization of T. indicum using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunits 1 (CO1) sequences and 16S ribosomal DNA (16S rDNA) sequences. The morphological measurements resulting in HL = 4.31 ± 0.12 mm, HW = 3.87 ± 0.06 mm, EL = 0.89 ± 0.05 mm, EW = 0.58 ± 0.01 mm, SL = 3.56 ± 0.08 mm, ML= 1.11 ± 0.12 mm, CI = 89.83 ± 1.17, EI = 20.59 ± 0.88 and SI = 82.95 ± 2.34. The CO1 sequences and 16S rDNA sequences of T. indicum from each population are deposited and accessible via Genbank (NCBI) database. The phylogenetic trees result in two clades with three haplotypes, but the genetic structure is not well revealed.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Ab Majid, A.H., Dieng, H., Ellias, S.S. & Ahmad, H. 2016. Tropical household ants species composition and distribution in rapid urbanization area in Penang, Malaysia. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies, 4(1): 496-500.

Ab Majid, A.H., Dieng, H., Ellias, S.S., Sabtu, F.S. & Satho, T. 2018. Olfactory behavior and response of household ants (Hymenoptera) to different types of coffee odor: A coffee-based bait development prospect. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology, 21(1): 46-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aspen.2017.11.005

Blekhman, A., Goryacheva, I., Schepetov, D. & Zakharov, I. 2020. Variability of the mitochondrial CO1 gene in native and invasive populations of Harmonia axyridis Pall. comparative analysis. PLoS ONE, 15(4): e0231009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231009

Chong, K.F. & Lee, C.Y. 2006. Food preferences and foraging activity of field populations of a pest ant, Tapinoma indicum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology, 48(3): 875-926.

Chong, K.F. & Lee, C.Y. 2009. Evaluation of liquid baits against field populations of the long-legged ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Economic Entomology, 102(4): 1586-1590. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1603/029.102.0424

Escárraga, M.E., Lattke, J.E., Pie, M.R. & Guerrero, R. J. 2021. Morphological and genetic evidence supports the separation of two Tapinoma ants (Formicidae, Dolichoderinae) from the Atlantic Forest biome. ZooKeys, 1033: 35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1033.59880

Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh, W., Lutz, R. & Vrijenhoek, R. 1994. DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology, 3(5): 294-299.

Forel, A. 1895. Les formicides de l’empire des indes et de ceylan. Part V. Journal of The Bombay Natural History Society, 9: 453-472.

Guerrero, R.J. 2018. Taxonomic identity of the ghost ant, Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius, 1793) (Formicidae: Dolichoderinae). Zootaxa, 4410(3): 497-510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/Zootaxa.4410.3.4

Hamm, C.A. 2010. Multivariate discrimination and description of a new species of Tapinoma from the western United States. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 103(1): 20-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/103.1.20

Hasegawa, M., Kishino, H. & Yano, T. 1985. Dating the human-ape split by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 22: 160-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02101694

Holley, J.A.C., Moreau, C.S., Laird, J.G. & Suarez, A.V. 2016. Subcaste-specific evolution of head size in the ant genus Pheidole. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 118(3): 472-485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12769

Ješovnik, A. & Schultz, T.R. 2017. Revision of the fungus-farming ant genus Sericomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae). ZooKeys, 670: 1-109.

Ismail, N.Z., Arsad, H., Samian, M.R., Ab Majid, A.H. & Hamdan, M.R. 2016. Evaluation of genetic diversity of Clinacanthus nutans (Acanthaceaea) using RAPD, ISSR and RAMP markers. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 22(4): 523-534. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-016-0391-x

Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C. & Tamura, K. 2018. MEGA X: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35: 1547-1549. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096

Lee, C. 2008. Sucrose bait base preference of selected urban pest ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in Proceedings of The Sixth International Conference on Urban Pests. Veszpraém, Hungary, OOK-Press Press, pp. 59-63.

Lim, L. & Ab Majid, A.H. 2019. Plant derived pesticides (Citrus hystrix DC, Mentha x piperita L., Ocimum basilicum L.) in controlling household ants (Tapinoma indicum (F.), Pheidole megacephala (F.), Monomorium pharaonis (L.) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, 42: 1321-1342.

Lv, J., Wu, S., Zhang, Y., Chen, Y., Feng, C., Yuan, X., Jia, G., Deng, J., Wang, C., Wang, Q., Mei, L. & Lin, X. 2014. Assessment of four DNA fragments (COI, 16S rDNA, ITS2, 12S rDNA) for species identification of the Ixodida (Acari: Ixodida). Parasites & Vectors, 7(1): 93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-93

Mallis, A. & Moreland, D. 2011. Handbook of Pest Control. 10th Ed. Mallis Handboook Company, Ohio. 448-449 pp.

Meirmans, P. & Hedrick, P. 2010. Assessing population structure: FST and related measures. Molecular Ecology Resources, 11(1): 5-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-0998.2010.02927.x

Rozas, J., Ferrer-Mata, A., Sánchez-DelBarrio, J.C., Guirao-Rico, S., Librado, P., Ramos-Onsins, S.E., & Sánchez-Gracia, A. 2017. DnaSP 6: DNA sequence polymorphism analysis of large datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34: 3299-3302. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx248

Sabtu, F. & Ab Majid, A.H. 2017. Genetic variation and population structure of the arboreal bicolored ant Tetraponera rufonigra Jerdon from selected urban locations in eastern Penang Island, Malaysia. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology, 20(4): 1350-1357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aspen.2017.10.003

Schlick-Steiner, B.C., Steiner, F.M. & Zettel, H. 2006. Tetramorium pacificum MAYR, 1870, T. scabrum MAYR, 1879 sp. rev., T. manobo (CALILUNG, 2000) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)-three good species. Myrmecologische Nachrichten, 8: 181-191.

Sharaf, M., Al Dhafer, H.M., Aldawood, A. S. & Garcia, F.H. 2018. Ants of the Monomorium monomorium species-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Arabian Peninsula with description of a new species from southwestern Saudi Arabia. PeerJ, 6: e4277. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4277

Simon, C., Frati, F., Beckenbach, A., Crespi, B., Liu, H. & Flook, P. 1994. Evolution, weighting, and phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial gene sequences and a compilation of conserved polymerase chain reaction primers. Annals of The Entomological Society of America, 87(6): 651-701. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/87.6.651

Tamura, K. 1992. Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions when there are strong transition-transversion and G + C-content biases. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 9: 678-687.

Wang, W., Srivathsan, A., Foo, M., Yamane, S. & Meier, R. 2018. Sorting specimen-rich invertebrate samples with cost-effective NGS barcodes: Validating a reverse workflow for specimen processing. Molecular Ecology Resources, 18(3): 490-501. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12751

Xu, H., Chu, Z., Zhang, J., Jing, M. & Huang, L. 2020. Genetic diversity and population structure of Acanthochiton rubrolineatus (Polyplacophora) based on mitochondrial and nuclear gene markers. Diversity, 12(4): 159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/d12040159

Ye, L., Yao, T., Wu, L., Lu, J. & Wang, J. 2018. Morphological and molecular diagnoses of Polydora brevipalpa Zachs, 1933 (Annelida: Spionidae) from the shellfish along the coast of China. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 37(2): 713-723. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-7381-0

Zheng, L., He, J., Lin, Y., Cao, W. & Zhang, W. 2014. 16S rRNA is a better choice than COI for DNA barcoding hydrozoans in the coastal waters of China. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 33(4): 55-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-014-0415-8