First Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Melyridae(Coleoptera, Cleroidea): Genome Description and Phylogenetic Implications

Abstract

To explore the characteristics of the mitogenome of Melyridae and reveal phylogenetic relationships, the mitogenome of Cordylepherus sp. was sequenced and annotated. This is the first time a complete mitochondrial genome has been generated in this family. Consistent with previous observations of Cleroidea species, the mitogenome of Cordylepherus sp. is highly conserved in gene size, organization and codon usage, and secondary structures of tRNAs. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiate with the standard start codon ATN, except ND1, which starts with TTG, and terminate with the complete stop codons of TAA and TAG, or incomplete forms, TA- and T-. Most tRNAs have the typical clover-leaf structure, except trnS1 (Ser, AGN), whose dihydrouridine (DHU) arm is reduced. In the A+T-rich region, three types of tandem repeat sequence units are found, including a 115 bp sequence tandemly repeated twice, a 16 bp sequence tandemly repeated three times with a partial third repeat and a 10 bp sequence tandemly repeated seven times. Phylogenetic analyses based on 13 protein-coding genes by both Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods suggest that Melyridae sensu lato is polyphyletic, and Dasytinae and Malchiinae are supported as independent families.