The complete mitochondrial genome of the dragon swallowtail, Sericinus montela Gray (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and its phylogenetic implication.

Abstract

The phylogenetic relationship between the zerynthiids and the other groups of Papilionidae has long been a controversial issue. In this study , the complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial genome ( mitogenome ) of Sericinus montela belonging to the zerynthiids was determined using long PCR and conserved primer walking approaches. Meanwhile , the phylogenetic analysis of this species with other representative papilionid species was conducted to clarify their phylogenetic relationships on the mitogenomic level. The results showed that the entire mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA ) molecule is 15 242 bp in length with the content of A , T , G and C of 40. 1% , 40. 8% , 7. 4% and 11. 7% , respectively , and its nucleotide composition of the genome is highly A + T biased ( 80. 8% ) ; all the 13 protein coding genes ( PCGs ) use standard initiation codons ATN , and all the PCGs use common stop codon ( TAA ) , except for the ND4 and ND4L genes , which terminate with a single T ; all tRNA genes form a typical clover-leaf secondary structure , except for the tRNA Ser ( AGN ) , whose DHU arm forms a simple loop ; there are twelve intergenic spacer regions ranging from 2 to 65 bp in size , and fifteen overlaps ranging from 1 to 8 bp in size in the mitogenome sequence. The neighbor joining and maximum parsimony phylogenetic analyses based on the 13 PCG sequences showed that Sericins montela and Luehdorfia chinensis form a clade that is sister to the Parnassius bremeri , suggesting that they should be designated as a taxon of tribal level within the subfamily Parnassiinae in the family of Papilionidae.