title: Arrangement and structural conservation of the mitochondrial control region of two species of Plecoptera: utility of tandem repeat-containing regions in studies of population genetics and evolutionary history.
abstract: Low levels of primary sequence similarity across insect taxa have led to the suggestion of conserved structural elements in the insect mitochondrial control region. Our aim was to determine whether previously described motifs and secondary structures exist in stoneflies (Plecoptera). Several motifs and structural elements previously described in Orthoptera and Diptera were found, including a conserved 'hairpin' structure that may play a role in the initiation of mtDNA replication. The repeat region had the highest percentage similarity, lowest A-T content and highest transition to transversion ratio, suggesting a unique evolutionary pattern for the repeats. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of the control region in population genetic and evolutionary studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology; Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. aschulth@stetson.edu
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Schultheis
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Weigt
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Hendricks
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D007313:Insecta / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial