Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Smerinthus caecus (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

Abstract

In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the complete mitogenome of Smerinthus caecus Ménétriés, 1857. The mitogenome of S. caecus is a circular structure, and 15,363 bp long in size and encodes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and a control region (CR). An extremely high AT bias of 79.2% was found in the nucleotide composition of mitogenome. Most of the PCGs used ATN as the start codon and TAA or TAG as the stop codon, which is similar to most other insect mitogenomes, except cox1, which starts with CGA. The phylogeny of Smerinthinae was reconstructed using a maximum-likelihood method, a total of 33 mitogenomes were sampled for phylogenetic analyses. The subfamily Langiinae was selected as outgroup. The results confirmed the position of S. caecus in the Smerinthinae, in which Smerinthus caecus was placed as the sister taxon to Smerinthus planus, then to Laothoe amurensis.

Keywords:

• Bombycoidea
• mitochondrial genome
• phylogenetic relationship
• Dabie Mountain

Acknowledgements

We thank Ian J. Kitching and Ping Shin Lee to review the manuscript.

Author contributions

Yin-Feng Meng: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript. Chao-Fan Chen: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data. Yi-Xin Huang: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data. Xu Wang: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data. Bo Zhang: study concept and design, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript, and final approval of the version to be published. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Ethics statement

No specific permits were required for the insect specimens collected for this study. The field studies did not involve endangered or protected species. The insect species sequenced is a common hawkmoth species in China and is not included in the 'List of Protected Animals in China’.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study are openly available in GenBank at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/, reference number MZ593603. The associated BioProject, Bio-Sample numbers, and SRA are PRJNA752517, SAMN20600166, and SRR15358143, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Specialized Research Fund of Education Department of Shaanxi Province [21JK0618], Project of Science and Technology Special of Shangluo [2021-Z-0048], the Scientific Research Foundation of Shangluo University [20SKY009], the Natural Science Fund of Anhui Province [1908085QC93], and the Natural Science Foundation of Universities of Anhui Province [KJ2020A0094].