Phylogenetic analyses of fat body endosymbionts reveal differences in invasion times of blaberid wood-feeding cockroaches (Blaberidae: Panesthiinae) into the Japanese archipelago

Cockroaches have endosymbiotic bacteria in their fat bodies. Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses on both hosts and endosymbionts have revealed that co-evolution has occurred throughout the history of cockroaches and termites. Co-cladogenesis was also shown among closely related taxa (woodroach genus Cryptocercus; Cryptocercidae), and thus endosymbiont data are likely to be useful for biogeographical analyses. To test the possibility of co-cladogenesis among inter- and intraspecific taxa, as well as the utility of endosymbiont data for inferring biogeographical scenarios, we analyzed rRNA genes of endosymbionts of Japanese and Taiwanese Panesthiinae (Salganea and Panesthia; Blaberidae), on which phylogenetic analyses previously had been performed based on the mitochondrial genes. Statistical analyses on the topologies inferred from both endosymbiont and host mitochondria genes showed that co-cladogenesis has occurred. The endosymbiont sequences examined appear to have evolved in a clock-like manner, and their rate of evolution based on the host fossil data showed a major difference in the time of invasion of the two Japanese genera, that is congruent with the recent analyses of their mitochondrial genes.