The mitochondrial genomes of the Geometroidea (Lepidoptera) and their phylogenetic implications

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. e9813 - n/a
• Main Authors: Ding, Weili, Xu, Haizhen, Wu, Zhipeng, Hu, Lizong, Huang, Li, Yang, Mingsheng, Li, Lili
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-02-2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Composition; Crop production; Entomology; Evolutionary Ecology; Gene rearrangement; Genes; Genomes; Genomics; Geometridae; Geometroidea; Heterogeneity; Insects; Lepidoptera; Mitochondria; mitochondrial genome; Nucleotides; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Population genetics; Species composition; Taxonomy; Transfer RNA; tRNA; China; mitochondrial genome; phylogeny; gene rearrangement; Geometridae
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9813

The Geometroidea is a large superfamily of Lepidoptera in species composition and contains numerous economically important pest species that cause great loss in crop and forest production. However, understanding of mitogenomes remains limited due to relatively fewer mitogenomes previously reported for this megadiverse group. Here, we sequenced and annotated nine mitogenomes for Geometridae and further analyzed the mitogenomic evolution and phylogeny of the whole superfamily. All nine mitogenomes contained 37 mitochondrial genes typical in insects, and gene organization was conserved except for Somatina indicataria. In S. indicataria, the positions of two tRNAs were rearranged. The trnR was located before trnA instead of after trnA typical in Lepidoptera, whereas the trnE was detected rarely on the minority strand (N‐strand). This trnR‐trnA‐trnN‐trnS1‐trnE‐trnF newly recognized in S. indicataria represents the first gene rearrangement reported for Geometroidea and is also unique in Lepidoptera. Besides, nucleotide composition analyses showed little heterogeneity among the four geometrid subfamilies involved herein, and overall, nad6 and atp8 have higher nucleotide diversity and Ka/Ks rate in Geometridae. In addition, the taxonomic assignments of the nine species, historically defined by morphological studies, were confirmed by various phylogenetic analyses based on the hitherto most extensive mitogenomic sampling in Geometroidea.
In this study, we determined nine mitochondrial genomes for the Geometridae for the first time. A tRNA gene rearrangement was recognized in S. indicataria, which represents the first gene rearrangement reported for Geometroidea and is also unique in Lepidoptera. The mitochondrial genomes of the Geometridae were comparatively analyzed, and various phylogenetic analyses were conducted based on the hitherto most extensive mitogenomic sampling in Geometroidea, which could facilitate the understanding of Geometroidea phylogeny.