Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis of Epiverta chelonia (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

Abstract

Epiverta chelonia (Mader 1933; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is an important economically and scientifically valuable insect. In this study, the first complete mitochondrial genome of E. chelonia was sequenced and characterized using next-generation sequencing techniques. The circular mitogenome of E. chelonia consists of 17,347 bp including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a control region (D-loop). The base composition was AT-biased (75.77%). Bayesian Inference and Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees strongly supported the monophyly of Coccinellinae. Also, E. chelonia was supported as the sister group of Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata, within Epilachninae. Thus, the E. chelonia mitochondrial genome will be a fundamental resource for understanding the molecular phylogenetic relationships of the species-rich family Coccinellidae of Coleoptera.

Keywords:

• Epiverta chelonia
• complete mitochondrial genome
• phylogenetic analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Researcher Guoyue Yu for identifying the species and Dr. Shengchang Lai for the data analysis.

Ethical approval

The study does not involve the study of vertebrates or regulated invertebrates, and samples are collected in areas available for collection in public areas, in accordance with guidelines provided by the authors’ institutions and national or international regulations. Therefore, ethical approval is not required for this study.

Authors’ contributions

Yongke Zhang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Writing – Original Draft; Lijuan Zhang: Data Curation, Formal analysis, Writing – Review and Editing; Yingchun Lu: Investigation, Resources, Data Curation; Xiahong He: Funding Acquisition, Supervision; Hongrui Zhang (Corresponding Author): Samples collection, Funding Acquisition, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – Review and Editing, Project administration. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors are responsible for the sample collection, experiment designing, writing, and revising of the paper.

Data availability statement

The genome sequence data that support the findings of this study are openly available in GenBank of NCBI at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ under the accession no. ON209194. The associated BioProject, SRA, and Bio-Sample numbers are PRJNA847008, SRR19612121, and SAMN28928437, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Innovative Research Team of Science and Technology in Yunnan Province [202105AE160016]; China Agriculture Research System [CARS-21]; Regional Innovation and Cooperation Programs in Sichuan Province [2021YFQ0022].