The complete mitochondrial genome of Graphium chironides (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Papilioninae)

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Graphium chironides is a circular molecule of 15,235 bp in length, containing 37 typical animal mitochondrial genes: 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a non-coding AT-rich region. All PCGs start with a typical ATN initiation codon, except for COI, which is initiated with the CGA codon as observed in other butterfly species. Eleven PCGs terminate in the complete stop codon TAA or TAG, whereas the COI and COII genes end with single T. Twelve intergenic spacers (79 bp in total) and 15 overlapping regions (42 bp in total) are dispersed throughout the whole genome. The two rRNA genes (lrRNA and srRNA) are 1343 bp and 778 bp in size, with the AT contents of 84.2% and 85.3%, respectively. All tRNA genes display typical secondary cloverleaf structures except for tRNASer(AGN) which loses the DHU arm. The 419 bp long AT-rich region contains several features common to the other lepidopterans, such as the ATAGA motif followed by a 12 bp poly-T stretch, two microsatellite-likes (TA)7 and (TA)9 preceded by the ATTTA motif.