Mitochondrial, metagenomic, and phylogenetic analysis of the ground beetle Harpalus pensylvanicus (Coleoptera: Carabidae).

Abstract

Harpalus pensylvanicus (Coloptera: Carabidae) is a weed seed predator common throughout the United States. While Carabidae is a very large group of beetles, limited genomic resources exist, especially mitochondrial genomes. This study expands research in this area by assembling and annotating the complete mitochondrial genome of H. pensylvanicus and performs phylogenetic analyses with closely related species. Further use of the metagenomic data was made to characterize microbial taxa and clusters of orthologous groups of proteins. The complete mitochondrial genome is 16,434bp in length, AT rich, and consist of 13 protein coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and a control region. Phylogenetic analyses were congruent with the Harpalinae and Pterostichinae clade together. Microbial classification shows a predominance of Gamma- (37.77%) and Alpha-proteobacteria (33.97%).