Abstract
Parasitic lice demonstrate an unusual array of mitochondrial genome architectures and gene arrangements. We characterized the mitochondrial genome of Geomydoecus aurei, a chewing louse (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) found on pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) using reads from both Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing coupled with PCR, cloning, and Sanger sequencing to verify structure and arrangement for each chromosome. The genome consisted of 12 circular mitochondrial chromosomes ranging in size from 1,318 to 2,088 nucleotides (nt). Total genome size was 19,015 nt. All 37 genes typical of metazoans (2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 13 protein-coding genes) were present. An average of 26% of each chromosome was composed of non-gene sequences. Within the non-gene region of each chromosome, there was a 79-nt nucleotide sequence that was identical among chromosomes and a conserved sequence with secondary structure that was always followed by a poly-T region. We hypothesize that these regions may be important in the initiation of transcription and DNA replication, respectively. The G. aurei genome shares 8 derived gene clusters with other chewing lice of mammals, but in G. aurei, genes on several chromosomes are not contiguous.
Highlights
Parasitic lice (Order Phthiraptera) have mitochondrial genomes that are exceptionally variable among species and strikingly atypical of the genomes observed in most other insects or other bilaterian animals
The 11 circular mitochondrial chromosomes characterized in this work, together with the one characterized by Pietan et al [17], ranged in size from 1,318 nt to 2,088 nt and carried all 37 genes typical of metazoans (2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 13 protein-coding genes [1, 2]; Table 2)
Parasitic lice exhibit an impressive diversity of gene arrangement and chromosome number in their chromosomal architectures
Summary
Parasitic lice (Order Phthiraptera) have mitochondrial (mt) genomes that are exceptionally variable among species and strikingly atypical of the genomes observed in most other insects or other bilaterian animals. Whereas most bilaterian animals examined have a single, large mitochondrial chromosome [1, 2], the mt genome of some parasitic lice occurs as multiple smaller chromosomes. That observation has been followed by numerous other examples of atypical mitochondrial genome architecture in other parasitic lice, with species exhibiting anywhere from 2–20 chromosomes [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].
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