Abstract

The present study compares the mitochondrial genomes of five species of the spittlebug tribe Callitettixini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) from eastern Asia. All genomes of the five species sequenced are circular double-stranded DNA molecules and range from 15,222 to 15,637 bp in length. They contain 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein coding genes (PCGs) and 2 rRNA genes and share the putative ancestral gene arrangement of insects. The PCGs show an extreme bias of nucleotide and amino acid composition. Significant differences of the substitution rates among the different genes as well as the different codon position of each PCG are revealed by the comparative evolutionary analyses. The substitution speeds of the first and second codon position of different PCGs are negatively correlated with their GC content. Among the five species, the AT-rich region features great differences in length and pattern and generally shows a 2–5 times higher substitution rate than the fastest PCG in the mitochondrial genome, atp8. Despite the significant variability in length, short conservative segments were identified in the AT-rich region within Callitettixini, although absent from the other groups of the spittlebug superfamily Cercopoidea.

Highlights

  • Callitettixini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a small tribe currently containing eleven described species in three genera distributed in China and Southeast Asia [1]

  • The foams are secreted by a specialized bellow-like tube structure on the ventral surface of the abdomen of the nymphs and the foam itself is formed by mucopolysaccharides and proteins secreted by the glandular segment of the Malpighian tubules mixing with air [4]

  • In total the complete mitochondrial genomes of five Callitettixini species were sequenced for the present study

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Summary

Introduction

Callitettixini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a small tribe currently containing eleven described species in three genera distributed in China and Southeast Asia [1]. Known as froghoppers or spittlebugs, species of the Cercopoidea are characterized by their extremely powerful jumping ability [2,3] and the habit of covering themselves with foamy saliva-like masses during their nymphal stages. The superfamily Cercopoidea is classified into five families, Cercopidae, Aphrophoridae, Machaerotidae, Clastopteridae and Epipygidae. An inter-familiar relationship, Machaerotidae + (Clastopteridae + (Cercopidae + (Aphrophoridae + Epipygidae))) was proposed by Cryan [8] and Cryan and Svenson [9], based on analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial genes

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