The mitochondrial genome of Paraahimia luodianensis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae), a new genus and species from China

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome of the leafhopper species Paraahimia luodianensis was sequenced and annotated. It is 16,497 bp in length and consists of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two rRNA genes, and one AT-rich region. Most of PCGs started with ATN and stopped with TAA, except for ATP8 started with TTG, COX2, COX3, NAD5, and NAD1 used incomplete T–– as a stop codon. We constructed a phylogenetic tree from 12 species (Hemiptera) based on neighbour-joining method and using 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes. The result showed that both species of Limassolla lingchuanensis and P. luodianensis which belonging to Zyginellini were clustered into one clade. This study further enriched mitogenome database of the tribe Zyginellini.

Keywords:

• Paraahimia luodianensis
• leafhopper
• mitochondrial genome

The species of Paraahimia luodianensis was described and illustrated as a remarkable leafhopper new genus and species from China, which belonging to the tribe Zyginellini of the subfamily Typhlocybinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) (Yuan and Song 2019). Species of this tribe usually have bright coloration and distinct patterns on their body and wings. They often have vannal veins in hind wing separate apically, only one transverse vein visible and submarginal vein extended directly to vein CuA, forming one open apical cell. In order to explore its phylogenetic relationship with other leafhoppers, we provided the complete mitochondrial genome of P. luodianensis. According to the sequencing result combined with the information on Genebank database, the complete mitochondrial sequence of P. luodianensis was obtained, submitted to GenBank, and was assigned the accession number: MN901449. All adult specimens of P. luodianensis were collected from Luodian County in Guizhou Province of China (N25°56′, E106°86′). The whole body specimen and male genitalia were preserved in ethanol and stored in the insect specimen room of Guizhou Normal University with an accession number GZNU-ELS-2019009.

The circular mitogenome of P. luodianensis is 16,497 bp in size. The overall nucleotide composition was A (46.2%), T (33.8%), C (11.6%), and G (8.4%). The A + T content of genes is 80%, which is similar to other Typhlocybinae leafhopper mitogenomes (Tan et al. 2020; Yan et al. 2020). The P. luodianensis mitogenome displays gene overlap in 36 bp in fifteen locations. The longest 8 bp overlapping exists between tRNA-Trp and tRNA-Cys. Intergenic region has been found at nine gene junctions, and all of them ranged in the size from 1 to 8 bp. The initial codons for 12 PCGs of P. luodianensis were the canonical putative start codons ATN (eight with ATG, three with ATT, and one with ATA). Only ATP8 started with TTG, COX2, COX3, NAD5, and NAD1 used incomplete T–– as a stop codon, the remaining nine PCGs end with TAA.

To validate the phylogenetic placement of P. luodianensis, we constructed the phylogenetic trees of 11 other Hemiptera taxa from GenBank and reconstructed using neighbour-joining method based upon the concatenated nucleotide sequences of the 13 core PCGs (Figure 1). The result of phylogenetic tree shows that both Zyginelline species of Limassolla lingchuanensis and P. luodianensis clustered into one clade, indicating the closest relationship between them. This result also supports the traditional classification viewpoint proposed by Dworakowska in 1977 (Dworakowska 1977). The determination of the complete mitogenome sequences provided new molecular data to illuminate the Typhlocybinae evolution.

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between Paraahimia luodianensis and 11 species (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) based on neighbour-joining method.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by the Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Foundation [(2018)1411], the Guizhou Science and Technology Support Project [(2019)2855], the Program for Academician Workstation in Guiyang University [(2019)5605], the Project for National Top Discipline Construction of China: Geography in Guizhou Normal University [Qian Jiao Keyan Fa (2017)85-01] and the Project for Regional Top Discipline Construction of Guizhou Province: Ecology in Guiyang University [Qian Jiao Keyan Fa (2017)85].