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Barcoding of Czech butterflies
ŠKOPEK, Patrik
The aim of this thesis was to extract DNA of Czech butterflies and sequence their mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (i.e., the barcode), in order to uncover their genetic and intraspecific relationships and geographical differences. Moreover, I compared the sequences with data from other European countries. I extracted DNA from butterfly legs, amplified the target DNA fragment with PCR (polymerase chain reaction), and check the PCR product quality on an agarose gel. PCR products were sequenced. In total, I collated 500 sequences from 87 species (61.7% of the Czech fauna). Phylogenetic trees were built by maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. To reveal the potential cryptic diversity and lineages, I used GMYC analysis. The results of GMYC were distributed into four groups: 71 species (81.6%) contained a single entity, two species pairs (4.6%) were merged into two entities, 10 species (11.5%) were split into more entities (potential cryptic diversity) and two species (2.3%) were both split and merged with a different species. To Czech samples of 33 Lycaenid species, I added database samples from Romania and Germany. Their relationships were compared based on a phylogenetic tree. In the case of 10 species (30.3%), data from one country was missing. In 19 species (57.7%), the Czech samples were related to both Romanian and German samples. One species (3%) was related to Romanian samples and one species to German samples. Two Czech species (6%) formed a separate branch in the tree. This work served as a preliminary study into the Czech butterfly mitochondrial diversity and barcoding efficacy, but more data is needed to complete the study.
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