Fig 1.
Sampling sites of scorpions in Mexico.
Map of Mexico showing the sampling locations, number of individuals and percentage of the different genera collected. Pie chart centres are positioned over the sampling locations. The size of the pie charts corresponds to the number of total individuals collected and colors represent the proportions of the different genera sampled.
Table 1.
GenBank accession numbers of the DNA sequences obtained by PCR with specific primers for SMC and SG1 (16S rRNA), scorpion mitochondrial gene markers (16S rRNA and CO1) and scorpion nuclear gene marker 28S rRNA.
Table 2.
Primers used for PCR amplification.
Fig 2.
Mollicutes 16S rRNA phylogenetic tree.
A phylogenetic tree was constructed with maximum likelihood and the GTR + G model using 237 sequences representing different species and the new lineages found in scorpions. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus were used as outgroups. Bootstrap values above 60 are shown. Representative Mollicutes clades were collapsed (See S1 Fig for the non-collapsed tree).
Fig 3.
Comparison of scorpion and symbiont phylogenies.
Different colors were used for each genus or clade: dark blue, Vaejovis; light blue, Mesomexovis; dark green, Thorellius; light green, Hoffmanihadrurus; purple, Megacormus; pink, Diplocentrus; red, Centruroides, “striped group”; yellow, Centruroides, “gracilis group”; brown, Androctonus; black, outgroups (Mastigoproctus sp. or Mycoplasma hyorhinis). (A) Scorpion phylogeny with concatenated 16S rRNA, CO1 and 28S rRNA genes (GTR + G + I). (B) SMC 16S rRNA gene phylogeny (GTR + G). (C) SG1 16S rRNA gene phylogeny (GTR + G).
Fig 4.
Tanglegrams of host species and SMC phylogenies used for cophylogenetic analyses.
Scorpion phylogeny (left) constructed with concatenated 16S rRNA, CO1 and 28S rRNA genes, and SMC phylogeny (right) with 16S rRNA. Nodes with bootstrap values lower than 50% were collapsed. Colors are as in Fig 3.
Fig 5.
Cophylogenetic reconstruction of scorpion hosts and their SMC symbionts obtained with Jane 4.
The individual phylogenies were constructed and inferred as in Fig 3. Black branches delineate the scorpion phylogeny. Blue branches represent SMC phylogeny. The polytomies formed after collapsing nodes with bootstrap values lower than 50% are shown in purple. Red circles outlined at the nodes indicate suggested cospeciation events.