Mitochondrial Genomic Analysis of the Tea Geometrid, Ectropis grisescens Warren, 1894 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and Its Phylogenetic Implications

Mitogenome and phylogeny of Ectropis grisescens

Abstract

Ectropis grisescens Warren, 1894 is a major pest species only feeding on tea plants but lacks sufficient molecular data to clarify its genetic characters. Complete mitochondrial genome of the tea geometrid Ectropis grisescens is sequenced for the first time. The mitogenome of E. grisescens is 16,575 bp in length, with an A+T content of 81.2%. The typical set of 37 genes (13 PCGs, 22 tRNA genes and two rRNA genes) are all identified. Most PCGs have standard ATN start codons and TAN stop codons. Most tRNA genes exhibite cloverleaf secondary structures, whereas the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of trnSer (AGN) is reduced into a small loop. Poly-T stretch, tandem repeats and stem-loop (SL) structures are predicted in the control region, which is long (1550 bp) and highly biased toward A+T nucleotides (92.3%). The mitochondrial phylogenetic analyses using the Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood methods (ML) consistently recover the generic relationships within Geometridae. E. grisescens is correctly grouped with its congener and the monophyly of Ennominae and Larentiinae are both supported.