Complete sequence and characterization of the Ectropis oblique mitochondrial genome and its phylogenetic implications

In the present study, we sequenced the entire mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Ectropis oblique using PCR amplification and sequencing methods The entire mitogenome is 15,356bp long, including 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and A+T rich element. The base composition and gene arrangement are identical to those of other lepidopterans. Of these 37 genes, twenty three are resided on heavy strand, while fourteen located on light strand. The newly sequenced mitogenome displayed a biased Adenine/thymine 84.94% usage versus guanine/cytosine. The AT skewness is 0.030 and the GC skewness is -0.180. Twelve out of 13 PCGs initiated with canonical start codon (ATN), while cox1 started with CGA. The A+T rich element of E. oblique is 363bp long and contains of many features common to lepidopteran insects, including the 'ATAGA' motif, a 22bp poly (T) stretch and a microsatellite-like (AT)₈ element upstream of trnM. Further, this mitogenome comprises 15 intergenic spacer and overlapping regions. Phylogenetic analyses showed that E. oblique belongs to Geometridae, and that the monophyly of Lepidoptera superfamilies is well supported.