The first mitochondrial genome for Phaudidae (Lepidoptera) with phylogenetic analyses of Zygaenoidea

Abstract

Phauda flammans Walker belongs to Phaudidae (Lepidoptera), which is a holometabolous and leaf-eating pest that harms trees. So far, there is no mitochondrial (mt) genome reported of Phaudidae. Herein, we sequenced and annotated the complete mt genome of P. flammans representing the first mt genome of Phaudidae and predicted the secondary structures of its RNAs in this study. This mt genome is 15470 bp long consisting of 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs and the control region, which are usually conserved in insects. Most PCGs used the standard ATN start codons and complete TAA/TAG termination codons. Almost all of tRNA genes exhibited cloverleaf secondary structures except that the dihydorouridine (DHU) arm of tRNA^Ser(AGN) was absent. The phylogenetic analyses using both Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods all supported that Phaudidae was a single family being the sister group to Zygaenidae. More mt genomes are needed to better understand the phylogenetic relationships within Zygaenoidea in the future.