Mitogenomic Comparison of the Mole Crickets Gryllotalpidae with the Phylogenetic Implications (Orthoptera: Ensifera)

Abstract

Owing to limited molecular data, the phylogenetic position of the family Gryllotalpidae is still controversial in the infraorder Gryllidea. Mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) plays a crucial role in reconstructing phylogenetic relationships and revealing the molecular evolution of insects. However, only four mitogenomes have been reported in Gryllotalpidae to date. Herein, we obtained the first mitogenomes of Gryllotalpa henana Cai & Niu, 1998 and the Chinese G. orientalis Burmeister, 1838, made a detailed comparison of all mitogenomes available in Gryllotalpidae and reconstructed the phylogeny of Gryllidea based on mitogenomes using Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods. The results show that the complete mitogenome sequences of G. henana (15,504 bp) and G. orientalis (15,497 bp) are conserved, both exhibiting the double-stranded circular structure, typical gene content and the ancestral insect gene arrangement. The complete mitogenome of G.henana exhibits the lowest average AT content ever detected in Gryllotalpidae, and even Gryllidea. The gene nad2 of both species has atypical initiation codon GTG. All tRNAs exhibit typical clover-leaf structure, except for trnS1 lacking the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm. A potential stem–loop structure, containing a (T)n(TC)2(T)n sequence, is detected in the control region of all gryllotalpids investigated and is likely related to the replication initiation of the minority strand. The phylogenetic analyses recover the six families of Gryllidea as Gryllotalpidae + (Myrmecophilidae + (Mogoplistidae + (Trigonidiidae + (Phalangopsidae + Gryllidae)))), similar to the trees based on transcriptomic and mitogenomic data. However, the trees are slightly different from the multilocus phylogenies, which show the sister-group relationship of Gryllotalpidae and Myrmecophilidae. The contradictions between mitogenomic and multilocus trees are briefly discussed.

Phylomitogenomics of two Neotropical species of long-legged crickets Endecous Saussure, 1878 (Orthoptera: Phalangopsidae)

“…However, one discrepancy involves the positioning of the Myrmecophilus and Ornebius genera, where the ML tree was consistent with findings from previous studies ( Yang et al, 2021 ; Dan et al, 2022 ; Ma and Miao, 2022 ; Gaugel et al, 2023 ). Incorporating the third codon position might lead to more robust tree topologies ( Ma and Miao, 2022 ). Therefore, its selective inclusion across certain genes could have influenced the phylogenomic relationships.…”

“…Species with genomes rich in AT content typically favor codons ending in A/T, such as Gryllotalpa orientalis , where 79.2% of the third codon position ends in A/T ( Kim et al, 2005 ; Dan et al, 2022 ; Subramanian et al ., 2022 ). Furthermore, a higher frequency of A/T-ending genes positively impacts the AT bias of mitogenomes ( Ma and Miao, 2022 ).…”

“…The Type I classification encompasses G. orientalis , G. pluvialis of Gryllotalpinae, and Myrmecophilus manni of Myrmecophilinae ( Dan et al, 2022 ). Expanding this group are G. unispina , M. kubotai , O. fuscicercis, and O. kanetataki of the Mogoplistinae subfamily, which was not included previously ( Ma and Li, 2018 ; Dan et al ., 2022 ; Ma and Miao, 2022 ). Regarding the standard gene order in invertebrates, both Caelifera and Ensifera exhibit different rearrangements.…”

“…Within the suborder Ensifera, there is the infraorder Gryllidea, encompassing the superfamilies Grylloidea (which comprises the families Gryllidae, Mogoplistidae, Trigonidiidae, Phalangopsidae, and Oechantidae) and Gryllotalpoidea (with two families, Gryllotalpidae and Myrmecophilidae) ( Desutter-Grandcolas, 2003 ; Zhou et al, 2017 ; Cigliano et al ., 2023 ). In phylogenetic analyses, some incongruences within the infraorder arise due to data combinations, such as the insertion of the third codon position, which can influence support values and topology ( Ma and Miao, 2022 ).…”

More than a name: Mid‐Cretaceous amber fossils link crickets and mole crickets (Orthoptera, Ensifera)

“…Forty-five morphological characters were selected for analysis, including 2 characters describing the body (1, 2), 8 of the head (3-10 Marquier et al, 2016;Li et al, 2019). Some other analyses based on various molecular data reject the sister group relationship between these two groups (Ma & Miao, 2022;Sanno et al, 2021;Song et al, 2015Song et al, , 2020.…”