First complete mitochondrial genome sequence from the tribelocephaline assassin bugs (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Opistoplatys sp. was determined, which was the first representation from the assassin bug subfamily Tribelocephalinae. The mitogenome is a typical circular DNA molecule of 15,615 bp and contains 37 genes and a putative control region. All the 13 protein-coding genes initiate with ATN codons and mostly terminate with TAA or TAG codons except for COII, COIII, and ND5 genes use a single T residue as the termination codon. All the 22 tRNAs have the clover-leaf structure except for the tRNA^Ser(AGN) with the length ranging from 60 to 72 bp. The control region is 1068 bp in length and includes 456 bp tandem repeat sequence with four 94-bp tandem repeat units and a partial fifth (80 bp). In the sampled subfamilies of Reduviidae, Peiratinae + the remaining subfamilies, Triatominae + Stenopodainae, Tribelocephalinae + Ectrichodiinae, are recovered in phylogenetic analyses with high supports.

Keywords:

• Assassin bug
• Hemiptera
• mitochondrial genome
• Reduviidae
• tribelocephalinae

Declaration of interest

Funding for this study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31372229, 31420103902, and 31401991), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 6144027 and 6152016), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2013M540167 and 2014T70145). All authors have read and approved the final manuscript. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.