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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302049
Title: Comparison of the mitochondrial genomes of the old and new world strains of the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Author
item AGUNBIADE, TOLULOPE - University Of Illinois
item Coates, Brad
item SUN, WEILIN - University Of Illinois
item M. CARMEN, VALERO - University Of Illinois
item TAMO, MANUEL - International Institute For Tropical Agriculture
item PITTENDRIGH, BARRY - University Of Illinois

Submitted to: International Journal of Tropical Insect Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/29/2016
Publication Date: 8/17/2017
Citation: Agunbiade, T.A., Coates, B.S., Sun, W., M. Carmen, V.M., Tamo, M., Pittendrigh, B.R. 2017. Comparison of the mitochondrial genomes of the old and new world strains of the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). International Journal of Tropical Insect Science. 37(3):125-136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758417000157.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758417000157

Interpretive Summary: Insect species that feed on crop plants are seldom well understood and often times cryptic relationships within and between these insect species affect the efficacy of management practices. Unknown mating barriers can exist which reduce or stop gene flow within a population of insects, and impacts management practices aimed to delay the onset of resistance to insecticide applications. Such a scenario exists within the legume pod borer. Methods were developed to rapidly acquire DNA sequence from the mitochondrial genome, and resulting data were used to determine species relationships. These results are important in government, university and industry scientists for the study of pest insect population dynamics, and to define species complexes that may be affected by selection for resistance to transgenic toxins or chemical insecticides.

Technical Abstract: The complete mitochondrial genome of the legume pod borer, Maruca sp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) subspecies from Puerto Rico, was sequenced and assembled from Illumina HiSeq read data. The 15,405 bp Maruca sp. mitochondrial genome sequence has a 81% A+T content, and encodes s 13 protein-coding, 2 rRNA, and 22 tRNA genes that have an orientation and arrangement typical of insect mitochondrial DNAs. The derived arrangement of tRNAMet-tRNAIlu-tRNAGln following the AT-rich control region is observed in Maruca sp also has been found in all Lepidoptera. Intergenic spacer regions are small except for an A+T rich 326 bp sequence between tRNAser and nad1 genes which contains the ATACTAA motif, and 12- and 19-bp poly(T) repeats that are also present in all the six available sequenced crambid mitogenomes and across the order Lepidoptera. The phylogenetic relationships were constructed based on amino acid sequences of the 13 protein coding genes, and support the traditional relationships within the Crambidae.