The Riodinidae is one of the lepidopteran butterfly families.This study describes the complete mitochondrial genome of the butterfly species Abisara fylloides,the first mitochondrial genome of the Riodinidae family.The results show that the entire mitochondrial genome of A.fylloides is 15301 bp in length,and contains 13 protein-coding genes,2 ribosomal RNA genes,22 transfer RNA genes and a 423 bp A+T-rich region.The gene content,orientation and order are identical to the majority of other lepidopteran insects.Phylogenetic reconstruction was conducted using the concatenated 13 protein-coding gene(PCG)sequences of 19 available butterfly species covering all the five butterfly families(Papilionidae,Nymphalidae,Peridae,Lycaenidae and Riodinidae).Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses highly supported the monophyly of Lycaenidae+Riodinidae,which was standing as the sister of Nymphalidae.In addition,we propose that the riodinids be categorized into the family Lycaenidae as a subfamilial taxon.
Fang ZHAODun-Yuan HUANGXiao-Yan SUNQing-Hui SHIJia-Sheng HAOLan-Lan ZHANGQun YANG
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Parathyma sulpitia （Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Limenitidinae） was determined. The entire mitochondrial DNA （mtDNA） molecule was 15 268 bp in size. Its gene content and organization were the same as those of other lepidopteran species, except for the presence of the 121 bp long intergenic spacer between trnSI（AGN）and trnE. The 13 protein-coding genes （PCGs） started with the typical ATN codon, with the exception of the coxl gene that used CGA as its initial codon. In addition, all protein-coding genes terminated at the common stop codon TAA, except the nad4 gene which used a single T as its terminating codon. All 22 tRNA genes possessed the typical clover leaf secondary structure except for trnSI（AGN）, which had a simple loop with the absence of the DHU stem. Excluding the A＋T-rich region, the mtDNA genome of P. sulpitia harbored 11 intergenic spacers, the longest of which was 121 bp long with the highest A＋T content （100%）, located between trnSI（AGN） and trnE. As in other lepidopteran species, there was an 18-bp poly-T stretch at the 3＇-end of the A＋T-rich region, and there were a few short microsatellite-like repeat regions without conspicuous macro-repeats in the A＋T-rich region. The phylogenetic analyses of the published complete mt genomes from nine Nymphalidae species were conducted using the concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs with maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. The results indicated that Limenitidinae was a sister to the Heliconiinae among the main Nymphalidae lineages in this study, strongly supporting the results of previous molecular data, while contradicting speculations based on morphological characters.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Apatura ilia （GenBank accession no. JF437925） was determined as a circular DNA molecule of 15 242 bp, with common genes of 13 putative proteins, 2 rRNAs, and 22 tRNAs and of the same gene arrangement as in other sequenced lepidopterans. All protein-coding genes had the typical start codon ATN, except for the COI＇s using CGA as its start codon as previously demonstrated in other lepidopteran species. The comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the A. ilia mitogenome with ten other Nymphalidae species showed nearly identical gene orientation and arrangement, with only a few alterations in non-coding fragments. The nucleotide composition and codon frequency all fell into the range estimated for the order Lepidoptera. The A. ilia mitochondrial genome had the canonical set of 22 tRNA genes folded in the typical cloverleaf structure, with an unique exception of tRNAs^r （AGN）. The mitochondrial genes from A. ilia were overlapped in a total of 33 bp at 9 locations, as well as interleaved with a total of 155 bp intergenic spacers, spread over 12 regions with the size ranging from 1 to 49 bp. Furthermore, the spacer between ND6 and Cyt b harbored a microsatellite-like repeat （TA）23 not found in other completely sequenced nymphalid genomes. The 403 bp AT-rich region harbored two conserved motifs （ATAGA, ATTTA）, a 21 bp polyT stretch, a 10 bp poly-A region, along with two microsatellite-like repeats （ （TA）10 and （TA）7）, as detected in other nymphalid butterflies.
We investigated the complete mitochondrial genome（mitogenome） of Argyreus hyperbius.The 151 56 bp long genome harbored the gene content（13 protein coding genes,22 tRNA genes,2 rRNA genes and an A＋T-rich region） and the gene arrangement was identical to all known lepidopteran mitogenomes.Mitogenome sequence nucleotide organization and codon usage analyses showed that the genome had a strong A＋T bias,accounting for A＋T content of 80.8%,with a small negative AT skew（？0.019）.Eleven intergenic spacers totaling 96 bp,and 14 overlapping regions totaling 34 bp were scattered throughout the whole genome.As has been observed in other lepidopteran species,12 of the 13 protein-coding genes（PCGs） were initiated by ATN codons,while the COI gene was tentatively designated by the CGA codon.A total of 11 PCGs harbored the complete termination codon TAA,while the COI and COII genes ended at a single T residue.All of the 22 tRNA genes showed typical clover structures except that the tRNASer（AGN） lacks the dihydrouridine（DHU） stem which is replaced by a simple loop.The intergenic spacer sequence between the tRNASer（AGN） and ND1 also contained the ATACTAA motif,which is conserved in all other lepidopterans as well.Additionally,the 349 bp A＋T-rich region was not comprised of large tandem repetitive sequences,but harbored a few structures common to other lepidopteran insects,such as the motif ATAGA followed by a 20 bp poly-T stretch,a microsatellite-like（AT）9 element preceded by the ATTTA motif,and a 5 bp poly-A site present immediately upstream of tRNAMet.The mitochondrial genomic sequence features found in this study not only contribute to genetic diversity information of the group,but also are useful in future studies of the endangered nymphalid butterfly in population genetic dynamics,species conservation,phylogeography and evolution.
The Riodinidae is one of the lepidopteran butterfly families. This study describes the complete mitochondrial genome of the butterfly species Abisara fylloides, the first mitochondrial genome of the Riodinidae family. The results show that the entire mitochondrial genome of A. fylloides is 15301 bp in length, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a 423 bp A＋T-rich region. The gene content, orientation and order are identical to the majority of other lepidopteran insects. Phylogenetic reconstruction was conducted using the concatenated 13 protein-coding gene （PCG） sequences of 19 available butterfly species covering all the five butterfly families （Papilionidae, Nymphalidae, Peridae, Lycaenidae and Riodinidae）. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses highly supported the monophyly of Lycaenidae＋Riodinidae, which was standing as the sister of Nymphalidae. In addition, we propose that the riodinids be categorized into the family Lycaenidae as a subfamilial taxon.
Fang ZHAODun-Yuan HUANGXiao-Yan SUNQing-Hui SHIJia-Sheng HAOLan-Lan ZHANGQun YANG
