A low-cost and high-throughput approach for phylogenomics: Resolving evolutionary relationships between recently diverged species

The advent of high-throughput sequencing technology has enabled scientists to answer basic and applied questions regarding the evolutionary relationships across the spectrum of species of interest.  Sequence library preparation is often the bottleneck determining the speed at which data is generated.  Multiple methods for large data set generation are available such as sequencing libraries for ultra-conserved elements and gene orthologs or generation of sequence libraries using anchored hybrid enrichment.  Generating a sequencing library of gene orthologs across multiple species is arguably the most flexible, least labor intensive, and most cost effective way to generate the amount of data necessary for elucidating the phylogenetic relationships of closely related species.  The Hawaiian native tree, the ‘ohi’a lehua (Metrosideros spp.), is a specious taxa with a complex evolutionary history.  Here we present a reconstructed phylogeny of multiple ‘ohi’a lehua species using gene ortholog sequences generated with the Fluidigm Access Array platform. In addition to our previous work, we present our plans to apply this method to the Bactrocera dorsalis species complex of which the economically and agriculturally important pest the Oriental fruit fly is a member.