Abstract
BackgroundComplete mitochondrial genome sequences have become important tools for the study of genome architecture, phylogeny, and molecular evolution. Despite the rapid increase in available mitogenomes, the taxonomic sampling often poorly reflects phylogenetic diversity and is often also biased to represent deeper (family-level) evolutionary relationships.ResultsWe present the first fully sequenced ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) mitochondrial genomes. We sampled four mitogenomes from three species of fire ants, genus Solenopsis, which represent various evolutionary depths. Overall, ant mitogenomes appear to be typical of hymenopteran mitogenomes, displaying a general A+T-bias. The Solenopsis mitogenomes are slightly more compact than other hymentoperan mitogenomes (~15.5 kb), retaining all protein coding genes, ribosomal, and transfer RNAs. We also present evidence of recombination between the mitogenomes of the two conspecific Solenopsis mitogenomes. Finally, we discuss potential ways to improve the estimation of phylogenies using complete mitochondrial genome sequences.ConclusionsThe ant mitogenome presents an important addition to the continued efforts in studying hymenopteran mitogenome architecture, evolution, and phylogenetics. We provide further evidence that the sampling across many taxonomic levels (including conspecifics and congeners) is useful and important to gain detailed insights into mitogenome evolution. We also discuss ways that may help improve the use of mitogenomes in phylogenetic analyses by accounting for non-stationary and non-homogeneous evolution among branches.
Highlights
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences have become important tools for the study of genome architecture, phylogeny, and molecular evolution
Whole mitogenomes are increasingly used in phylogenetic studies [1,2,3,4,5,6] and in analyses of genome rearrangements [7,8,9,10,11], which can be used for phylogenetic inference [8,12,13,14,15,16]
Our mitogenome data for three fire ant species belonging to two species groups [19,20] provides insights into mitogenome evolution at lower taxonomic levels
Summary
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences have become important tools for the study of genome architecture, phylogeny, and molecular evolution. Despite the rapid increase in available mitogenomes, the taxonomic sampling often poorly reflects phylogenetic diversity and is often biased to represent deeper (family-level) evolutionary relationships. The four mitogenomes presented here represent important contributions to the ever expanding dataset of complete hymenopteran mitochondrial genomes in that they represent a previously unsampled, highly diverse, and ecologically dominant vespoid family (Formicidae). Our mitogenome data for three fire ant species belonging to two species groups [19,20] provides insights into mitogenome evolution at lower taxonomic levels Such data generally are rare [18], with the notable exceptions in insects of a study employing comparable sampling for Nasonia [21] and much more extensive sampling in Drosophila Such data generally are rare [18], with the notable exceptions in insects of a study employing comparable sampling for Nasonia [21] and much more extensive sampling in Drosophila (38 mitogenomes; GenBank Sept. 21, 2009)
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