Phylogenetic Reconstruction of the Paper Wasp Genus Polistes (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB)

Eusociality

Cooperative brood care Overlapping generations

Division of labor

1.Abundance and environmental range

2.Exploitation of human populated areas

3.Relatively small colonies

4.Primitively Eusocial

Cooperative breeding

Sheenans et al . 2014

Variation in number of foundresses

Evolution of Cooperative Breeding

Sheehan et al. 2015

Santos et al 2015

Maximum Parsimony 66 species: Outgroup: 8 speciesPolistes: 58 species

3 Nuclear genes: 28S rRNA, Histone 3 (H3) and Elongation factor I alpha (EFI – α)

3 mitochondrial genes: COI, 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA

Morphological data:

Current Polistes Phylogeny

Estimation of Polistes Emergence 1. Produce a more resolved Polistes phylogeny

2. Bayesian Statistical framework

3. Time-calibrated phylogeny (inclusion of fossil)

Methods and Data

Cockerell 1914

Sequence data and Fossil Data

Pickett and Wenzel 2004Santos et al 2015

Species (SF) Citation Age Location

P. industrius Theobald 1937 33.7 – 28.5 mya

Cereste France

P. kirbyanus Cockerell 1914 11.2 – 7.1 mya

Oeningen Germany

P. primitive Heer 1865 11.2 – 7.1 mya

Oeningen Germany

P. vergnei Piton 1940 65 – 54.8 mya Menat France

P. signata Statz 1936 28.5 – 23.8 mya Rott-am-SiebengebirgeGermany

Protopolistes oblitus Cockerell 1921 37 – 33.7 mya Isle of Wight, UK

Agelaia electra Carpenter & Grimaldi, 1997

20.5 – 16.4 mya Dominica, Dominican Republic

Fossil Data

Analysis• BEAST2 • Fossilized Birth-Death Process

• Allows inclusion of fossil• Uniform Partition

• Model testing• Constraint on genus Polistes

• Removal of species• Thinning of Beast2 output

Heath et al. 2014

Bayesian Statistical framework

Computational Resources4 Independent runs

MCMC runs- 1,000,000,000Burn-in: 20%

ISU High Performance Computing (HPC)Speedy : 24 core, 256 GB RAM 3.40 GHz Intel

Xeon CPU

Tree Node Support

Polistes Node

High support

Low-support

Produce a more resolved Polistes phylogeny

Time–scale (millions of years ago) PresentPast

Emergence of Polistes (64.5 mya)

Time-calibrated phylogeny (inclusion of fossil)

Conclusion1. High support nodes for Polistes (Higher resolution)

2. First Time-calibrated phylogeny

3. Better understanding of evolution of Polistes

4. New tool for biologists

Provide new understanding of evolution of eusociality

Future Directions: Biogeography

New World Polistes

Santos et al. 2015

Future Directions: Niche modeling

Natural Range Potential Range

P. dominula

Questions?

Acknowledgments FundingGMAP FellowshipNSF Grants:DEB-1556853 & DEB-1556615

Computing resources ISU High Performance Computing (HPC)

ISU Interdepartmental Genetics Program