Mitochondrial phylogeny and comparative mitogenomics of closely related pine moth pests (Lepidoptera:Dendrolimus)

Abstract

BackgroundPine moths,Dendrolimusspp. (Lasiocampidae), are serious economic pests of conifer forests. Six closely related species (Dendrolimus punctatus,D. tabulaeformis,D. spectabilis,D. superans,D. houi, andD. kikuchii) occur in China and cause serious damage to coniferophyte. The complete mito genomes ofDendrolimusgenus are significant to resolve the phylogenetic relationship and provide theoretical support in pest control.MethodsThe complete mitogenomes of three species (D. superans,D. houi, andD. kikuchii) were sequenced based on PCR-amplified with universal primers, which were used to amplify initial fragments. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out with 78 complete mitogenomes of lepidopteran species from 10 superfamilies.ResultsThe complete mitochondrial genomes of these three species were 15,417, 15,381, and 15,377 bp in length, separately. The phylogenetic analyses produced consistent results for sixDendrolimusspecies based on complete mitogenomes, two major clades were formed, one containingD. spectabilisclustered withD. punctatus+D. tabulaeformis, andD. superansas the sister group to this three-taxon clade, the other containingD. kikuchiiandD. houi. Comparative analyses of the congeneric mitochondrial genomes were performed, which showed that non-coding regions were more variable than the A+T rich region. The mitochondrial nucleotide diversity was more variable when compared within than among genus, and the concatenated tRNA region was the most conserved and the nd6 genes was the most variable.

The First Mitogenomes of the Subfamily Odontiinae (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) and Phylogenetic Analysis of Pyraloidea

“…As for the sequence length of the control region, less than 600 bp is not annotated by mitoZ, and the known length of the A + T-rich region in most lepidopteran species ranges from 280 to 500 bp [ 20 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The annotation of the three mitochondrial genomes was also performed by the MITOS2 online server with default parameters ( , accessed on 30 March 2021).…”

Chromosome‐level genome assembly of an important pine defoliator, Dendrolimus punctatus (Lepidoptera; Lasiocampidae)

“…Despite the importance of D. punctatus , the genomic features behind its major ecological characteristics, such as host resistance adaption and outbreak mechanisms, remain unclear. Most molecular studies have focused on mitochondrial or nuclear marker sequencing to unravel phylogeographical patterns (Li, Jin, Zhu, Jiang, & Zhang, 2019; Qin, Li, Gao, Wilson, & Zhang, 2019; Qin et al., 2015), the expression and function analysis of important target genes (Liu, Liu, Zhou, Huang, & Zhang, 2017; Zhang et al., 2017; Zhang, Zhang, Kong, et al, 2014; Zhang, Zhang, Kong, Wang, & Liu, 2018), or on some of the important materials for insect survival (Yang et al., 2017). Some transcriptome studies are available, but only a limited amount of information has been extracted (Zhang et al., 2017, 2018); however, the development of related gene expression patterns based on transcriptome analysis has been reported (Yang, Yang, Li, Yang, & Zhang, 2016).…”

Research Progress on the Dendrolimus spp. Pheromone: From Identification to Molecular Recognition

“…Genome and mitochondrial phylogenies both indicate that Dendrolimus spp. (Lasiocampidae) is close to Bombyx mori (Bombycoidea) ( Qin et al, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ), but D. punctatus PRs appear to diverge more than expected. Maybe the reproductive systems of insects are under larger selection pressure, and these driven accelerating divergence of PR genes in Lepidoptera.…”