Abstract
BackgroundCosmoscartini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a large and brightly colored Old World tropical tribe, currently containing over 310 phytophagous species (including some economically important pests of eucalyptus in China) in approximately 17 genera. However, very limited information of Cosmoscartini is available except for some scattered taxonomic studies. Even less is known about its phylogenetic relationship, especially among closely related genera or species. In this study, the detailed comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses were performed on nine newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of Cosmoscartini, with the purpose of exploring the taxonomic status of the previously defined genus Okiscarta and some closely related species within the genus Cosmoscarta.ResultsMitogenomes of Cosmoscartini display similar genomic characters in terms of gene arrangement, nucleotide composition, codon usage and overlapping regions. However, there are also many differences in intergenic spacers, mismatches of tRNAs, and the control region. Additionally, the secondary structures of rRNAs within Cercopidae are inferred for the first time.Based on comparative genomic (especially for the substitution pattern of tRNA secondary structure) and phylogenetic analyses, the representative species of Okiscarta uchidae possesses similar structures with other Cosmoscarta species and is placed consistently in Cosmoscarta. Although Cosmoscarta bimacula is difficult to be distinguished from Cosmoscarta bispecularis by traditional morphological methods, evidence from mitogenomes highly support the relationships of (C. bimacula + Cosmoscarta rubroscutellata) + (C. bispecularis + Cosmoscarta sp.).ConclusionsThis study presents mitogenomes of nine Cosmoscartini species and represents the first detailed comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses within Cercopidae. It is indicated that knowledge of mitogenomes can be effectively used to resolve phylogenetic relationships at low taxonomic levels. Sequencing more mitogenomes at various taxonomic levels will also improve our understanding of mitogenomic evolution and phylogeny in Cercopidae.
Highlights
Cosmoscartini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a large and brightly colored Old World tropical tribe, currently containing over 310 phytophagous species in approximately 17 genera
The J-strand carried most of the genes (9 Protein-coding gene (PCG) and 14 Transfer RNA (tRNA)), while the remaining genes (4 PCGs, 8 tRNAs and two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs)) were located on the N-strand (Fig. 1)
There were 5–7 intergenic spacers, with the longest intergenic spacer located between trnS2 and nad1
Summary
Cosmoscartini (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a large and brightly colored Old World tropical tribe, currently containing over 310 phytophagous species (including some economically important pests of eucalyptus in China) in approximately 17 genera. The detailed comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses were performed on nine newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of Cosmoscartini, with the purpose of exploring the taxonomic status of the previously defined genus Okiscarta and some closely related species within the genus Cosmoscarta. The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of most metazoan is circular and compact with relatively conserved gene organization, order and direction. It varies from 14 to 20 kb and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and a large non-coding region ( referred to as the control region) [1,2,3]. Mitogenomes, especially in intergenic spaces, usually present higher mutation rates than nuclear genes and may provide valuable information for phylogenetic analyses among closely related taxa [10, 16, 17]
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