Mitochondrial markers for identification and phylogenetic studies in insects – A Review

Abstract

Similar morphology and high genetic diversity poses problems in phylogenetic studies of insects. To solve these problems, mitochondrial based markers have been adopted and are increasingly used as molecular markers for phylogenetic studies. Varied markers have been used for different species of insects, viz., markers for 16S r RNA, 12S r RNA, ND (1-6 genes), ATPase and control regions. Among which protein coding gene, CO-1 is found to be best because of its advantage over others whereas, AT rich region of mitochondrial DNA is the least used marker. A recent advanced technology in phylogenetic analysis; namely mitogenomics have greatly improved this research field. This short review attempted to summarize recent studies on the application of vari ous mitochondrial molecular markers for phylogenetic study of insects