Complete mitochondrial genomes of Anopheles aconitus and Anopheles splendidus and phylogenetics analysis of known mtgenomes in the subgenus Cellia (Diptera: Culicidae: Anophelinae)

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome (mtgenome) sequences of Anopheles aconitus and A. splendidus were sequenced and analyzed in this study. They are 15,359 bp and 15,362 bp long, respectively and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes (tRNAs), 2 rRNA genes (rRNAs), and 1 AT-rich control region (CR). The codon UUA (Leu) are prodominarily used in all 13 PCGs. ATN is mainly used as the initiation codon in theses PCGs except for COI and ND5 genes, which use TCG and GTG as the initiation codon, respectively and TAA as termination codon except for COI, COII, COIII, and ND4 that use the incomplete termination codon T. All of the tRNAs have the typical clover-leaf structure except for tRNASer(AGN), which lost the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm. The CRs have the highest A + T content of 92.97 and 93.18% in these two species, respectively. The phylogenetic relationships of 20 species in the subgenus Cellia were constructed using Maximum Likelihood based on concatenated nucleotide sequences of 13 PCGs with the selected best-fit GTR + I+G model. The 20 species are clearly divided into four monophyletic series: Pyretophorus, Neomyzomyia, Neocellia, and Myzomyia, and the Neomyzomyia is basal to the other three series. The Neocellia and Myzomyia are suggested to be sister groups and the Pyretophorus is proposed to sister with Neocellia + Myzomyia. This study provides a basis for further study on mtgenome and phylogenetics in the subgenus Cellia.