Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Five Racerunners (Lacertidae: Eremias) and Comparison with Other Lacertids: Insights into the Structure and Evolution of the Control Region

Abstract

Comparative studies on mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) as well as the structure and evolution of the mitochondrial control region are few in the Lacertidae family. Here, the complete mitogenomes of five individuals of Eremias scripta (2 individuals), Eremias nikolskii, Eremias szczerbaki, and Eremias yarkandensis were determined using next-generation sequencing and were compared with other lacertids available in GenBank. The circular mitogenomes comprised the standard set of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and a long non-coding control region (CR). The extent of purifying selection was less pronounced for the COIII and ND2 genes in comparison with the rest of the PCGs. The codons encoding Leucine (CUN), Threonine, and Isolecucine were the three most frequently present. The secondary structure of rRNA of Lacertidae (herein, E. scripta KZL15 as an example) comprised four domains and 28 helices for 12S rRNA, with six domains and 50 helices for 16S rRNA. Five types and twenty-one subtypes of CR in Lacertidae were described by following the criteria of the presence and position of tandem repeats (TR), termination-associated sequence 1 (TAS1), termination-associated sequence 2 (TAS2), conserved sequence block 1 (CBS1), conserved sequence block 2 (CSB2), and conserved sequence block 3 (CSB3). The compositions of conserved structural elements in four genera, Acanthodactylus, Darevskia, Eremias, and Takydromus, were further explored in detail. The base composition of TAS2 – TATACATTAT in Lacertidae was updated. In addition, the motif “TAGCGGCTTTTTTG” of tandem repeats in Eremias and the motif ”GCGGCTT” in Takydromus were presented. Nucleotide lengths between CSB2 and CSB3 remained 35 bp in Eremias and Darevskia. The phylogenetic analyses of Lacertidae recovered the higher-level relationships among the three subfamilies and corroborated a hard polytomy in the Lacertinae phylogeny. The phylogenetic position of E. nikolskii challenged the monophyly of the subgenus Pareremias within Eremias. Some mismatches between the types of CR and their phylogeny demonstrated the complicated evolutionary signals of CR such as convergent evolution. These findings will promote research on the structure and evolution of the CR and highlight the need for more mitogenomes in Lacertidae.

Complete Mitogenomes of Ticks Ixodes acutitarsus and Ixodes ovatus Parasitizing Giant Panda: Deep Insights into the Comparative Mitogenomic and Phylogenetic Relationship of Ixodidae Species

“…Many tick species share great morphological similarities and therefore group into species complexes until differentiating characters can be described [ 22 ]. The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) is a reliable marker for cryptic species identification, phylogenetic studies, and population genetics analysis, and has been widely used in animals [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], including in ticks [ 7 , 21 , 29 ]. In recent years, the number of sequenced mitogenomes of Ixodidae species has increased significantly, but the mitogenome studies on parasitic ticks of giant pandas have only been performed for three Haemaphysalis species [ 30 , 31 , 32 ].…”

Climate‐driven mitochondrial selection in lacertid lizards

“…Gene reversal, gene transposition, and tandem duplications with subsequent random gene loss have been proved to be possible causes of changes in the mitochondrial gene order in deep‐sea mussels (Zhang et al., 2021 ). In contrast, the mitochondrial gene order is conserved in vertebrates (Kundu et al., 2018 ; Tian & Guo, 2022 ). Our study supports the conclusion drawn in vertebrates, as revealed by the observation that the mitochondrial gene order was almost identical among different species of lacertid lizards, with inter‐specific differences reflected only in whether some genes are located on the heavy or light strand.…”

Complete Mitogenome Analysis of Five Leafhopper Species of Idiocerini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

“…The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) is increasingly popular in various scientific disciplines such as animal comparative genomics, molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and biogeography [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In comparison with its individual genes widely used in phylogenetics and biogeography, the mitogenome can be more phylogeny-informative and provide multiple genome-level characteristics such as gene order and rearrangements, RNA secondary structures, and modes of control of replication and transcription [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The mitogenome of insects is a small double-stranded circular molecule of 14–20 kb in size, containing 37 genes including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNA), and two ribosomal RNA genes (12S and 16S rRNA) [ 5 , 9 ].…”