Characterization of the Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Cerura menciana and Comparison with Other Lepidopteran Insects

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Cerura menciana (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae) was sequenced and analyzed in this study. The mitogenome is a circular molecule of 15,369 bp, containing 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes and a -rich region. The positive skew (0.031) indicated that more As than Ts were present. All PCGs were initiated by ATN codons, except for the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene, which was initiated by . Two of the 13 PCGs contained the incomplete termination codon or , while the others were terminated with the stop codon . The -rich region was 372 bp in length and consisted of an ‘’ motif followed by an 18 bp poly- stretch, a microsatellite-like ()8 and a poly- element upstream of the trnM gene. Results examining codon usage indicated that Asn, Ile, Leu2, Lys, Tyr and Phe were the six most frequently occurring amino acids, while Cys was the rarest. Phylogenetic relationships, analyzed based on the nucleotide sequences of the 13 PCGs from other insect mitogenomes, confirmed that C. menciana belongs to the Notodontidae family.

Comparative mitochondrial genome analysis of Daphnis nerii and other lepidopteran insects reveals conserved mitochondrial genome organization and phylogenetic relationships

“…The cox1 gene of D . nerii seems to be started with CCA codon as previously documented in Cerura menciana [20] and in Spoladea recurvalis [21]. Several authors have maintained the problematic translational start at the cox1 locus in many insect species, with TTAG, ACG, and TTG proposed as start codons for cox1 [22–24].…”

Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome of Spilarctia robusta (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae) and its phylogenetic implications

“…Furthermore, the relative codon usage (RSCU) recorded for S. robusta is similar to that for L. melli, A. formosae, S. charonda kuriyamaensis and O. furnacalis, but different from that recorded for the codons of species that lack GCG&GTG (H. cunea), GCG&CGC&CCG (G. argentata), CGG (P. atrilineata), GCG (C. pomonella) and GCG (H. vitta). It is likely there are fewer codons with a high GC, as this feature seems to be conserved in insects (Lu et al, 2013;Dai et al, 2015).…”

“…Comparison with other previously sequenced lepidopterans revealed that the A+T-rich region of the mitogenome studied is longer than that in L. melli (338 bp), G. argentata (340 bp), S. morio (316 bp), H. vitta (255 bp), M. sexta (324 bp) and A. ipsilon (332 bp), but shorter than that in H. cunea (357 bp), A. formosae (482 bp), C. pomonella (351 bp), P. atrilineata (457 bp), B. mandarina (484 bp), A. pernyi (552 bp) and C. suppressalis (348 bp) ( Table 4). The length of the poly-T stretch varies from species to species (Lu et al, 2013;Dai et al, 2015) and the ATAGA region is conserved in Lepidoptera (Cameron & Whiting, 2008).…”

“…We designed twelve pairs of primers from the conserved nucleotide sequences of known mitochondrial genomes of Lepidoptera to determine the sequence characteristics of the S. robusta mitogenome Dai et al, 2015). The complete list 2014).…”

Peer Review #1 of "The complete mitochondrial genome of Dysgonia stuposa (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and phylogenetic relationships within Noctuoidea (v0.1)"

“…It has the 'ATAGA' motif along with a 20 bp poly-T repeat, a microsatellite-like (AT) 10 repeat and a poly-A repeat sequence upstream of trnM ( Figure 6B). The poly-T stretch varies between different species (Dai et al, 2015), but the 'ATAGA' motif is conserved in insects (Zhang & Hewitt, 1997).…”