CEPAVE   05420
CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS PARASITOLOGICOS Y DE VECTORES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
High-altitude South American grasshoppers: defining biological units when genes, chromosomes and morphology tell different stories.
Autor/es:
CONFALONIERI, V.A.; GUZMAN, N.V.; MINUTOLO, C.; POCCO, M.E.; CIGLIANO, M.M.
Lugar:
Kunming
Reunión:
Congreso; 11th International Congress of Orthopterology; 2013
Institución organizadora:
The Orthopterists´Society
Resumen:
The diversification of high-altitude grasshoppers in South America is a complex process, most
probably related to tectonic and orogenic activities, and also to climatic factors. Many new biological
units emerged during the late Pliocene and Pleistocene in the Andes Mountain range, and, in some
cases, divergence may have occurred toorecentlyto be detected by taxonomic or traditional molecular
phylogenetic methods. Orotettix (Melanoplinae) and Trimerotropis (Oedipodinae) are two genera of
Acrididae inhabiting high-altitude areas under arid and semiarid conditions in South America. Orotetix
is represented by five morphologically differentiated species in Peru, while Trimerotropis is probably
composed of at least two South American chromosomally differentiated genetic lineages, which are
inconsistentwiththe existing taxonomicclassification. Traditional molecular phylogenetic analyses
and multilocus coalescent approaches, combined with the study of morphological and chromosomal
characters have revealed a complex scenario of species differentiation for these two genera. Molecular
clock inferences suggest that the second Andean uplift and climatic fluctuations during glacial and
interglacial periods mainly accounted for the diversification of Orottetix and Trimerotropis, respectively.
In the latter, chromosomal rearrangement has undoubtedly played a major role in triggering both
speciation processes and adaptation to altitudinal clines along the hillsides. In these studies, the use of
multiple sources of variation (genes, chromosomes, morphology) in several individuals and populations
has helped to elucidate the complex biogeographic scenario of diversification of both Andean genera.