The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Lepidotrigona flavibasis (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) and High Gene Rearrangement in Lepidotrigona Mitogenomes

Abstract

We reported the sequence and characteristics of the complete mitochondrial genome of an ecologically important stingless bee, Lepidotrigona flavibasis (Hymenoptera: Meliponini), that has suffered serious population declines in recent years. A phylogenetic analysis based on complete mitogenomes indicated that L. flavibasis was first clustered with another Lepidotrigona species (L. terminata) and then joined with the other two Melipona (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) stingless bees (M. scutellaris and M. bicolor), forming a single clade of stingless bees. The stingless bee clade has a closer relationship with bumblebees (Bombus) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) than with honeybees (Apis) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Extremely high gene rearrangements involving tRNAs, rRNAs, D-loop regions, and protein-coding genes were observed in the Lepidotrigona mitogenomes, suggesting an overactive evolutionary status in Lepidotrigona species. These mitogenomic organization variations could provide a good system with which to understand the evolutionary history of Meliponini.

Evolution of Gene Arrangements in the Mitogenomes of Ensifera and Characterization of the Complete Mitogenome of Schizodactylus jimo

“…Based on the analysis of Ka/Ks ratios and nucleotide substitution rates of all the Ensiferan mitogenomes, we found that mitogenome types with high substitution rates had high RFs. This relationship between the substitution rate and RFs has also been observed in other insect mitogenomes [ 40 , 53 , 54 ], indicating that there is a need for further studies that investigate the role of nucleotide substitution in mitochondrial gene arrangement in insects.…”

Unusual mitochondrial tRNA rearrangements in stingless bee Tetragonula pagdeni and phylogenetic analysis

“…At the genus level Tetragonula has a closer relationship with Lepidotrigona than with Melipona. The clade dendrogram showed that all stingless bees descended from a single split event and share a more recent ancestor with bumblebee (Bombus) than with honeybee (Apis), which was in line with prior researches (Wang et al 2020(Wang et al , 2021.…”

“…The clade dendrogram showed that all stingless bees descended from a single split event and share a more recent ancestor with bumblebee ( Bombus ) than with honeybee ( Apis ), which was in line with prior researches (Wang et al . 2020, 2021).…”

“…Because mitochondrial genomes mutate rapidly and lack recombination, they are indeed very useful in phylogenesis analysis (Oliveira et al 2008). The 37 mitochondrial genes usually follow conservative orders, nevertheless, lots of rearrangement events have been observed from different species (Tyagi et al 2020;Wang et al 2021;Yi et al 2022). Those mitochondrial genomes that have been rearranged seem to have little impact on the host, so these rearrangements were not removed by natural selection and kept as footprints of the evolutionary history (Mao et al 2014).…”

Mitochondrial gene rearrangements suggest a new genus in the subfamily Cantharinae (Coleoptera)

“…In these models, the only condition to achieve the final arrangement is that the duplication (Figure 5a: complete or Figure 5b: partial) encompasses the gene cluster trnY ‐OP‐ COI , because the OP between trnY and COI constraints that both genes must retain the full sequence (including the OP) when they get separated. The rearrangement of tRNA genes was expected due to their higher apparent mobility, compared with protein‐coding genes (Wang et al, 2021).…”