Complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the tropical hornet Vespa affinis (Insecta, Hymenoptera)

Abstract

We analyzed the complete mitochondrial genome of the Asian tropical hornet Vespa affinis from Ishigaki Island, Japan. It consisted of a circular molecule with 19,109 bp, which is larger to other hornet species e.g. V. velutina . We predicted the genome contained 13 protein-coding, 22 tRNA, and two rRNA genes, along with one A + T-rich control region. The repetitive sequences were confirmed at multiple positions in the non-coding genes. The initiation codons ATA was found in one, ATG in seven, and ATT in five genes, while the termination codons TAA and TAG were observed 11 and two genes, respectively. The average AT content of the genome was 78.4%.

Complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the alien hornet Vespa velutina (Insecta: Hymenoptera) invading Kyushu Island, Japan

“…The average AT content of the V. velutina mitochondrial genome is 81.68%. Similar to other hornet mitochondrial genomes (Okuyama et al 2017;Takahashi et al 2017), the heavy strand was predicted to contain 9 PCGs and 14 tRNA genes, and the light strand was predicted to contain 4 PCGs, 8 tRNA, and 2 rRNA genes. The genes ND4 and ND4L shared seven nucleotides.…”

“…Vespa ducalis, V. orientalis, V. mandarinia, V. affinis, Vespula germanica, Dolichovespula panda, Polistes. sp., P. jakohamae, and Abispa ephippium (Cameron et al 2008;Chen et al 2016;Song et al 2016;Wei et al 2016;Zhou et al 2016;Fan et al 2017;Haddad et al 2017;Kim et al 2017;Okuyama et al 2017) were used as outgroup.…”

De Novo Transcriptomic Resources in the Brain of Vespa velutina for Invasion Control

“…However, the development of these markers is costly and difficult in a species lacking genome information, such as Vespa velutina. In Vespa velutina, mitochondrial DNA sequencing [20][21][22] and microsatellite-enriched libraries [23] have been constructed and have aided the development of mtDNA and microsatellite markers used in the detection of hornet invasion, but these molecular markers are small scale and not very suitable for evolutionary and phylogenetic studies [41]. Our transcriptome data has provided various and reliable marker resources on the genome-wide scale.…”

“…Hornet behavior [4,[15][16][17] and olfactory systems [13,18,19] are areas of active research for developing control strategies, but little is known about the molecular level characteristics of Vespa velutina. Although molecular markers, such as mitochondrial DNA sequences [20][21][22] and microsatellites [23], have already been used to identify Vespa velutina samples [24] and define their distribution area [25,26], molecular-genomic tools are rarely used for hornet control. The key design points for molecular-genomic approaches are the selection of target genes encoding essential proteins/enzymes of important physiological pathways [27]; however, the lack of genome information, functional gene annotation, and molecular markers restricts the employment of target genes against Vespa velutina to ensure a prolonged and sufficient incapacitation of the pest.…”

A Bioinformatics Study to Detect the Genetic Characteristics of Vespa Hornets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

“…The mtDNA of some Vespa species have been sequenced including: V. mandarinia (Chen, Wei, & Liu, 2016), V. orientalis (Haddad et al, 2017), V. affinis (Okuyama, Martin, & Takahashi, 2017), V. ducalis (Kim, Jeong, Jeong, Kim, & Kim, 2017), and V. velutina (Takahashi, Okuyama, Minoshima, & Takahashi, 2018). The phylogenetic relationships between Vespa have been studied based on morphological characters (Perrard, Pickett, Villemant, Kojima, & Carpenter, 2013) while few studies have focused on the genetic characteristics of these hornets.…”