The mitochondrial genome of the dung beetle, Copris tripartitus, with mitogenomic comparisons within Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera)

Abstract

We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the dung beetle, Copris tripartitus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae); the sequence of this mitogenome had not been previously reported for this genus and tribe (Coprini). The mitogenome had the trnP-trnT arrangement at the ND4L-ND6 junction, which is found in only two species among the 56 available Scarabaeoidea species, including C. tripartitus. Twelve protein-coding genes (PCGs) had the typical ATT and ATG start codons, whereas COII gene had the GTA start codon, which is unusual in Scarabaeoidea. Phylogenetic analysis of the 32 species within the Scarabaeidae strongly supported the Onthophagini as non-monophyletic group. Coprini, the newly included tribe within Scarabaeinae, which includes C. tripartitus, was positioned at the most basal lineage of all the tribes included in Scarabaeinae, such as Oniticellini, Onthophagini, Onitini, Dichotomiini, Phanaeini, and Eurysternini with the highest nodal supports when amino acid sequences of 13 PCGs were used. However, analyses based on the nucleotide sequences of two RNAs and 13 PCGs placed Coprini as a sister tribe to the group composed of Dichotomiini, Phanaeini, and Eurysternini with lower nodal supports (ML, 55%; BI, 0.53). Although different datasets provided a conflicting result, higher nodal supports were obtained by amino acid sequence-based analyses.