The complete mitochondrial genome of a flea, Jellisonia amadoi (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae)

Abstract

The complete mitogenome sequence of the flea, Jellisonia amadoi (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae), was sequenced. The 17,031 bp long genome has the standard metazoan complement of 37 genes, in the insect ancestral genome arrangement. The very large (2338 bp) A + T rich region is marked by two macro-repeats and multiple microsatellite and homopolymer regions. The protein-coding, rRNA and tRNA genes are all highly similar to homologues in related insect orders – similar length, few indels and high proportion of invariant sites. Sequencing of a flea mitogenome provides data for one of the last three insect orders from which data were lacking and provides further proof that parasitic life histories alone do not cause aberrant mitogenomes.

• Fleas
• mitochondrial genome
• parasitism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Katharina Dittmar (State University of New York at Buffalo), Mike Hastriter (Brigham Young University) and Francisco Xavier Gonzalez for the collection and identification of donated specimens.

Declaration of interest

This study was funded by the US National Science Foundation systematics panel (DEB0444972) and the Australian Research Council Future Fellowships program (FT120100746). The author reports no conflict of interests. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.