title: The mitochondrial genome of the butterfly Papilio xuthus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and related phylogenetic analyses.
abstract: The nearly complete mitochondrial genome of the butterfly Papilio xuthus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) was sequenced for its nucleotide sequence of 13,964 bp. The genome has a typical gene order identical to other lepidopteran species. All tRNAs showed same stable canonical clover-leaf structure as those of other insects, except for tRNA(Ser) (AGN), in which the dihydrouracil arm (DHU arm) could not form stable stem-loop structure. Anomalous initiation codons have been observed for the cox1 gene, where the ATTACG hexa-nucleotide was believed to be involved in the initiation signaling. Twelve mitochondrial protein-coding gene sequence data were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships among the insect orders. Even though the number of insect orders represented by complete mitochondrial genomes is still limited, several well-established relationships are evident in the phylogenetic analysis of the complete sequences. Monophyly of the Homometabola was not supported in this paper. Phylogenetic analyses of the available species of Bombycoidea, Pyraloidea, Papilionoidea and Tortricidea bolstered the current morphology-based hypothesis that Bombycoidea, Pyraloidea and Papilionoidea are monophyletic (Obtectomera). Bombycoidea (Bombyx mandarina and Antheraea pernyi) and Papilionoidea (P. xuthus and Coreana raphaelis) formed a sister group.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, No. 1, Wenyuan Road, 210046, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Dian-Feng
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Nai-Xin
authors.initials: NX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chao-Dong
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Guo-Fang
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002080:Butterflies / Q000235:genetics*; D023061:Gene Order / Q000235:genetics; D049750:Genome, Insect / Q000235:genetics*; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D009711:Nucleotides; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012343:RNA, Transfer