title: Mitochondrial genomes of two phlebotomine sand flies, Phlebotomus chinensis and Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Nematocera), the first representatives from the family Psychodidae.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Leishmaniasis is a worldwide but neglected disease of humans and animal transmitted by sand flies, vectors that also transmit other important diseases. Mitochondrial genomes contain abundant information for population genetic and phylogenetic studies, important in disease management. However, the available mitochondrial sequences of these crucial vectors are limited, emphasizing the need for developing more mitochondrial genetic markers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The complete mitochondrial genome of Phlebotomus chinensis was amplified in eight fragments and sequenced using primer walking. The mitochondrial genome of Phlebotomus papatasi was reconstructed from whole-genome sequencing data available on Genbank. The phylogenetic relationship of 24 selected representatives of Diptera was deduced from codon positions 1 and 2 for 13 protein coding genes, using Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We provide the first Phlebotomus (P. chinensis and P. papatasi) mitochondrial genomes. Both genomes contain 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and an A + T-rich region. The gene order of Phlebotomus mitochondrial genomes is identical with the ancestral gene order of insect. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that Psychodidae and Tanyderidae are sister taxa. Potential markers for population genetic study of Phlebotomus species were also revealed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The generated mitochondrial genomes of P. chinensis and P. papatasi represent a useful resource for comparative genomic studies and provide valuable future markers for the population genetic study of these important Leishmania vectors. Our results also preliminary demonstrate the phylogenetic placement of Psychodidae based on their mitochondrial genomes.
authors.affiliation: Co-Innovation Center for Qinba regions' sustainable development, College of Life Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China. feiyeemail@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Co-Innovation Center for Qinba regions' sustainable development, College of Life Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China. tingliu_snnu@126.com.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, B3H 4J1. Stanley.king@dal.com.
authors.forename: Stanley D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Co-Innovation Center for Qinba regions' sustainable development, College of Life Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, 710062, China. youping@snnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: You
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010691:Phlebotomus / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial