PEPCK

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) is a single copy nuclear gene involved in gluconeogenesis in insects and other organisms (Friedlander et al. 1992, 1994). The gene has been demonstrated to be useful for recovering Cretaceous-age divergences in Lepidoptera alone (Friedlander et al. 1996) or in combination with other genes (Wiegmann et al. 2000), and has been used to recover relationships in carabid beetles (Sota & Vogler 2001) and simuliid flies (Moulton 2000). Recently, PEPCK was used in a phylogenetic analysis of the LT bee tribe Xylocopini (in the apid subfamily Xylocopinae; Leys 2000; Leys et al. 2000, 2002). Results based on a roughly 1 kb fragment of PEPCK, including three exons and two introns, indicates that the gene is useful for recovering Tertiary or late Cretaceous age divergences in bees (Leys 2000, Leys et al. 2002). Most nodes in an equal weights parsimony analysis of PEPCK were supported by bootstrap values >60% and relationships implied by the PEPCK data were congruent with a recent morphological study (Minckley 1998) and data from EF-1alpha (Leys et al. 2002).

Our preliminary experiments with PEPCK primers listed in Friedlander et al. (1996) and Leys et al. (2002) indicate that we can amplify a roughly 1 kb fragment in a diverse assemblage of short-tongued bees, including Hylaeus, Colletes, Trichocolletes [Colletidae]; Calliopsis, Pseudopanurgus, Protandrena [Andrenidae]; Nomia [Halictidae]; and Melitta [Melittidae].

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Gene Information:

PEPCK primer information (.pdf file)

Related Papers:
Leys, R., S.J.B. Cooper, & M.P. Schwarz (2002). Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the large carpenter bees, genus Xylocopa (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 77: 249-266. (.pdf file)

Data sets:
Leys et al. 2002 (.txt file)