Complete mitochondrial genome of Antheraea pernyi strain Yu7 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of Antheraea pernyi strain Yu7 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a circular molecule of 15,572 bp in length, with 37 typical coding genes and 1 non-coding A T-rich region. All protein coding genes (PCGs) start with a typical ATN initiation codon, except for the cox1 gene, which begins with TTAG codon. Nine genes used standard complete termination codon TAA, whereas the cox1, cox2, nad3 and nad5 genes end with single T. The non-coding AT-rich region is 554 bp long. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Antheraea pernyi Yu7 was close to Saturniidae.

In this study, the fresh pupae of Antheraea pernyi Yu7 was obtained from Sericultural Science Research Institute of Henan province (N33° 27′ 0.47″, E112° 42′ 49.12″), we determined the complete mitogenome sequence of Antheraea pernyi Yu7. The new sequence of this whole mtDNA genome was deposited in GenBank with the accession number KP999979 (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Phylogenetic tree of the lepidopterans based on the nucleotide sequences of the mitogenome using neighbour joining analysis.

The circular genome of this species is 15,572 bp long, and contains a typical gene complement: 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and 1 non-coding AT-rich region.

The base composition of the genome is T (40.91.%) > A (39.20%) >C (12.11%) >G (7.78%) and the A-T bias (80.11%) was detected. All PCGs are initiated by a typical ATN codon, except for the cox1 gene, which uses TTAG codon. Nine PCGs have a complete termination codon TAA and the incomplete stop codons (T––) are found in the other four genes (cox1, cox2, nad3 and nad5). The 22 tRNA genes range in size from 61 to 73 bp. The two rRNAs are also significantly biased towards A and T nucleotides (83.78% for rrnL and 84.00% for rrnS, respectively).

The 554-bp AT-rich region exhibits the highest AT content (89.89%) among the whole genome. Several characteristic structures are also detected in the AT-rich region, such as the ATAGA motif followed by an 19-bp poly-T stretch, five microsatellite-like (TATTATATTAA) upstream of transfer RNA M (trnM) gene.

Phylogenetic analysis based on the nucleotide sequences of the mitogenome using neighbour joining showed that Antheraea pernyi Yu7 and Antheraea pernyi Yuzao1 firstly cluster together, and then group with Antheraea yamamai, Samia cynthia ricini, Caligula boisduvalii, Actias selene and Eriogyna pyretorum belonging to the Saturniidae.