Complete mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis of Argiope perforata (Araneae: Araneidae)

Abstract

The complete mitogenome of Argiope perforata (GenBank accession number MK512574) is 14,032 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and an A + T-rich region. ATT, ATA, TTA, TTG were initiation codons and TAA, TAG, and T were termination codons. Ten tRNAs (trnD, trnW, trnL₂, trnE, trnF, trnR, trnH, trnP, trnT, and trnL₁) lacked the TΨC arm stem, while three tRNAs (trnA, trnS₁, and trnS₂) lost the dihydrouracil (DHU) arm. Phylogenetic tree based on 13 PCGs showed that A. perforata is closely related to Neoscona theisi, and clustered within Araneidae clade.

Keywords:

• Argiope perforata
• Araneidae
• mitogenome

The orb-weaving spider Argiope perforata belongs to the genus of Argiope, which includes 81 known species around the world (Wang 1988; Platnick 2015). Most of these spiders often have a strikingly coloured abdomen and are important predators of insect pests (Levi 2004). In this study, adult species of A. perforata were collected from Maolan Nature Reserve in Libo country, Guizhou Province, China (N25°18′, E107°52′), and deposited in the spider specimen room of Guiyang University with an accession number GYU-GZML-13.

The complete mitogenome of A. perforata (GenBank accession number MK512574) is 14,032 bp in length, and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rrnL and rrnS), and an A + T-rich region. The gene order and orientation of A. perforata are consistent with those of other known spider mitogenomes (Li et al. 2016; Xu et al. 2019). Fifteen genes were transcribed on the minor strand (J-strand), while the others were encoded on the major strand (N-strand). The overall base composition of A. perforata mitogenome is 35.30% for A, 9.65% for C, 38.90% for T, and 16.15% for G, with a high AT bias of 74.20%. The AT-skew and GC-skew of this genome were −0.049 and 0.252, respectively.

A total of 22 bp overlaps have been found at five gene junctions of A. perforata mitogenome, and the length of overlaps are ranging from 3 to 7 bp. There are 25 intergenic spacer sequences in a total of 208 bp with length varying from 1 to 26 bp and the largest intergenic spacer is located between nad3 and trnL₂. The length of 22 tRNAs ranged from 52 bp (trnA) to 65 bp (trnM), A + T content ranged from 68.52% (trnR) to 83.61% (trnC). Thirteen tRNAs lack the potential to form the cloverleaf secondary structure. Ten of them (trnW, trnD, trnL₂, trnE, trnF, trnR, trnH, trnP, trnT, and trnL₁) lacked the TΨC arm stem, three tRNAs (trnA, trnS₁, and trnS₂) lost the dihydrouracil (DHU) arm. The rrnL and rrnS genes are 1022 and 695 bp in length, with the A + T contents of 78.47 and 75.97%, respectively. The A + T-rich region of this mitogenome is 451 bp in length with an A + T content of 79.16% and located between trnQ and trnM.

Nine PCGs start with a typical ATN (ATT and ATA) codon, three genes (cox2, cox3, and nad6) start with TTG, and cox1 uses TTA as initiation codon. Twelve PCGs terminate with conventional stop codons (TAA and TAG), while nad4 uses incomplete codon (T) as termination codon. Based on the concatenated amino acid sequences of 13 PCGs, the neighbor-joining method was used to construct the phylogenetic relationship of A. perforata with 15 other spiders (Kumar et al. 2016). The result showed that A. perforata is closely related to Neoscona theisi, and clustered within Araneidae clade (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between Argiope perforate and 15 other spiders based on neighbor-joining method. GenBank accession numbers used in the study are the following: Araneus ventricosus (KM588668), Carrhotus xanthogramma (NC_027492.1), Cheliceroides longipalpis (NC_041120.1), Cyclosa argenteoalba (KP862583), Cyrtarachne nagasakiensis (KR259802), Habronattus oregonensis (AY571145), Hypsosinga pygmaea (KR259803), Neoscona theisi (NC_026290.1), Pardosa laura (NC_025223.1), Pholcus phalangioides (NC_020324.1), Phrynus sp. (NC_010775.1), Pirata subpiraticus (NC_025523.1), Plexippus paykulli (NC_024877.1), Telamonia vlijmi (NC_024287.1), Tetrancychus urticae (EU345430.1), and Wadicosa fidelis (NC_026123.1). T. urticae was used as an outgroup. The spider determined in this study is underlined.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by the Special Funding of Guiyang Science and Technology Bureau and Guiyang University [GYU-KYZ-2019-02-08], the Program for First-class university Construction in Guizhou Province [2017158322], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31760130], the Program for Academician workstation in Guiyang University [20195605], the Training Program for High-level Innovative Talents of Guizhou Province [20164020], and the Program for First-class Discipline Construction in Guizhou Province [201785].