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MBE Advance Access originally published online on September 8, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(11):2499-2509; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn198
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© 2008 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research Articles

A Comparative Analysis of Mitochondrial Genomes in Coleoptera (Arthropoda: Insecta) and Genome Descriptions of Six New Beetles

N. C. Sheffield*, H. Song*, S. L. Cameron{dagger} and M. F. Whiting*

* Department of Biology, Brigham Young University
{dagger} Australian National Insect Collection and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

E-mail: ncs{at}byu.net.

Accepted for publication August 30, 2008.

Coleoptera is the most diverse group of insects with over 360,000 described species divided into four suborders: Adephaga, Archostemata, Myxophaga, and Polyphaga. In this study, we present six new complete mitochondrial genome (mtgenome) descriptions, including a representative of each suborder, and analyze the evolution of mtgenomes from a comparative framework using all available coleopteran mtgenomes. We propose a modification of atypical cox1 start codons based on sequence alignment to better reflect the conservation observed across species as well as findings of TTG start codons in other genes. We also analyze tRNA-Ser(AGN) anticodons, usually GCU in arthropods, and report a conserved UCU anticodon as a possible synapomorphy across Polyphaga. We further analyze the secondary structure of tRNA-Ser(AGN) and present a consensus structure and an updated covariance model that allows tRNAscan-SE (via the COVE software package) to locate and fold these atypical tRNAs with much greater consistency. We also report secondary structure predictions for both rRNA genes based on conserved stems. All six species of beetle have the same gene order as the ancestral insect. We report noncoding DNA regions, including a small gap region of about 20 bp between tRNA-Ser(UCN) and nad1 that is present in all six genomes, and present results of a base composition analysis.

Key Words: mitochondrial genome • cox1 • tRNA-Ser(AGN) • RNA secondary structure • Coleoptera • Adephaga • Archostemata • Myxophaga • covariance model • base composition

Dr. Jennifer Wernegreen, Associate Editor


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N. C. Sheffield, H. Song, S. L. Cameron, and M. F. Whiting
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Characterization of 67 Mitochondrial tRNA Gene Rearrangements in the Hymenoptera Suggests That Mitochondrial tRNA Gene Position Is Selectively Neutral
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