Characterization of the Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Leucoma salicis (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) and Comparison with Other Lepidopteran Insects

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Leucoma salicis (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) was sequenced and annotated. It is a circular molecule of 15,334 bp, containing the 37 genes usually present in insect mitogenomes. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) are initiated by ATN codons, other than cox1, which is initiated by CGA. Three of the 13 PCGs had an incomplete termination codon, T or TA, while the others terminated with TAA. The relative synonymous codon usage of the 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) was consistent with those of published lepidopteran sequences. All tRNA genes had typical clover-leaf secondary structures, except for the tRNASer (AGN), in which the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm could not form a stable stem-loop structure. The A + T-rich region of 325 bp had several distinctive features, including the motif ‘ATAGA’ followed by an 18 bp poly-T stretch, a microsatellite-like (AT)7 element, and an 11-bp poly-A present immediately upstream of tRNAMet. Relationships among 32 insect species were determined using Maximum Likelihood (ML), Neighbor Joining (NJ) and Bayesian Inference (BI) phylogenetic methods. These analyses confirm that L. salicis belongs to the Lymantriidae; and that Lymantriidae is a member of Noctuoidea, and is a sister taxon to Erebidae, Nolidae and Noctuidae, most closely related to Erebidae.

Mitochondrial DNA: A Key Regulator of Anti-Microbial Innate Immunity

“…Recent studies showed that cGAS has remarkable anti-viral properties against different positive-strand RNA viruses, including the Flavivirus family members. However, not negative-strand RNA viruses [85,86], suggesting that common characteristic features observed during the life cycle of positive strand RNA virus, including the massive rearrangement of internal membranes, may stimulate a mislocalization of DNA that could act as a substrate to induce the cGAS/STING signaling pathway [86]. For example, cGAS−/− mice displayed enhanced rates of infection and mortality when compared with wild type mice, which was infected with the +ssRNA West Nile virus.…”

“…For example, cGAS−/− mice displayed enhanced rates of infection and mortality when compared with wild type mice, which was infected with the +ssRNA West Nile virus. This infectious agent probably triggers the release of mitochondrial DNA into the cytosol, which is then recognized by the nucleic acid sensors in the cytoplasm, subsequently induce the immune system to clear the infection [86].…”

Peer Review #1 of "The complete mitochondrial genome of Dysgonia stuposa (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and phylogenetic relationships within Noctuoidea (v0.1)"

“…To amplify the D. stuposa mitogenome, the universal (F1-R13) and specific primers (S1F-S3R) were used to perform PCR amplification (Table 1) (Sun et al, 2016). All PCR amplifications were executed using high fidelity DNA Polymerase (PrimeSTAR® GXL, Takara, Dalian, China).…”

“…All PCR amplifications were executed using high fidelity DNA Polymerase (PrimeSTAR® GXL, Takara, Dalian, China). PCRs was performed according to Sun et al (2016) with extension times depending on the putative length of target fragment. PCR product size was determined by PeerJ reviewing PDF | (2019:07:39693:3:0:NEW 7 Feb 2020)…”

Reassessment of the status of Lymantria albescens and Lymantria postalba (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Lymantriinae) as distinct ‘Asian gypsy moth’ species, using both mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data

“…Altogether, the two fragments represented approximately 60% of the complete mitogenomes, amounting to 10 of the 13 known mt PCGs and 12 of the 22 tRNAs (Fig. 2), and displayed a conserved gene arrangement relative to other lepidopteran mitogenomes (Cameron & Whiting, 2008;Sun et al, 2016;Djoumad et al, 2017).…”