The mitochondrial genome of the Vespa mandarinia Smith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Vespinae) and a phylogenetic analysis of the Vespoidea

Abstract

We report the mitochondrial genome of the Vespa mandarinia Smith (GenBank accession no. KR059904) for the subfamily Vespinae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). This is the first completely sequenced mitochodrial genome from the genus Vespa. All of the typical mitochondrial genes were sequenced with a length of 15 902 bp. In the V. mandarinia mitochondrial genome, four rearrangement events occurred compared with the pupative ancestral arrangement of insects, corresponding to the shuffling of trnQ and trnM, translocation of trnY to the region between A + T-rich region and trnI-trnM-trnQ, shuffling of trnS1 and trnE in the tRNA cluster of trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS1-trnE-trnF, and translocation of trnL1 from a location between nad1 and rrnL to the upstream of nad1 gene. Phylogenetic analysis using the Bayesian method based on all codon positions of the 13 protein-coding genes supports the monophyly of Vespidae and Formicidae. Within the Formicidae, the Myrmicinae and Dolichoderinae form a sister group, while within the Vespidae, the Eumeninae sister to lineage of Vespinae + Polistinae. Our study showed that the mitochondrial genomes between Vespinae and Polistinae shared more arrangement patterns than that between Vespinae and Eumeninae.

Keywords:

• Gene rearrangement
• Hymenoptera
• mitochondrial genome
• phylogeny
• Vespa mandarinia

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Jiang-Li Tan from the Northwest University (China) for the identification of the specimens.

Declaration of interest

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. This study was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 31472025) and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB127600).