Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome of the treehopper Darthula hardwickii (Hemiptera: Aetalionidae)

Abstract

The complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome of the treehopper Darthula hardwickii is presented. The circular genome is 15,359 bp long with 37 genes and 77.4% A + T content. Twenty-three genes are located on the J-strand, the remaining being oriented on the N-strand. Gene order is identical to that of the typical arrangement of other treehoppers. This genome is highly economized with 66 overlapped nucleotides between neighboring genes in 16 locations. All protein-coding genes initiate with ATN codons. All of the 22 tRNAs, ranging from 60 to 73 bp, have the clover-leaf structure, except the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of tRNA^{Ser (AGN)} and tRNA^Arg forms a simple loop as seen in many other metazoans. The sizes of the large and small ribosomal RNA genes are 1198 and 737 bp, respectively. The control region is 1081 bp in length with 83.72% A + T content. The complete mitogenome sequence of D. hardwickii could provide fundamental data for the phylogenetic studies of the Aetalionidae and Membracoidea and the Hemiptera as well.

• Aetalionidae
• Darthula hardwickii
• Membracoidea
• mitogenome
• treehopper

Declaration of interest

The authors have declared that no competing interests. This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (grant number 2011CB302102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31172128, 31372249, 3141101191) and a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST grant no. 2011FY120200).