Abstract
The mitochondrial genome of an assassin bug, Oncocephalus breviscutum Reuter, is a typical circular DNA molecule of 15,984 bp with 37 genes and a large control region. The gene order is identical to that of the putative ancestral arrangement of insects. Twelve protein-coding genes start with ATN codon and ND4L uses GTG. All of the 22 tRNAs, ranging from 61 to 70 bp, have the clover-leaf structure except for the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of trnS2 forms a simple loop. The control region is 1345 bp in length and includes six tandem repeats of three 31-nt and three 145-nt units.
Declaration of interest
This study was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB127600), and the Special Fund for Scientific Research (No. 2012FY111100). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.