Three Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Orestes guangxiensis, Peruphasma schultei, and Phryganistria guangxiensis (Insecta: Phasmatodea) and Their Phylogeny
by
,
Ke-Ke Xu
1, 
Qing-Ping Chen
1,
Sam Pedro Galilee Ayivi
1,
Jia-Yin Guan
1,
Kenneth B. Storey
2, 
Dan-Na Yu
1,3 and
Jia-Yong Zhang
1,3,* 1
College of Chemistry and Life Science, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
2
Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada
3
Key Lab of Wildlife Biotechnology, Conservation and Utilization of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2021, 12(9), 779; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12090779
Submission received: 30 July 2021
/
Revised: 26 August 2021
/
Accepted: 28 August 2021
/
Published: 31 August 2021
(This article belongs to the Section Insect Molecular Biology and Genomics)
Simple Summary
Twenty-seven complete mitochondrial genomes of Phasmatodea have been published in the NCBI. To shed light on the intra-ordinal and inter-ordinal relationships among Phasmatodea, more mitochondrial genomes of stick insects are used to explore mitogenome structures and clarify the disputes regarding the phylogenetic relationships among Phasmatodea. We sequence and annotate the first acquired complete mitochondrial genome from the family Pseudophasmatidae (Peruphasma schultei), the first reported mitochondrial genome from the genus Phryganistria of Phasmatidae (P. guangxiensis), and the complete mitochondrial genome of Orestes guangxiensis belonging to the family Heteropterygidae. We analyze the gene composition and the structure of the three mitochondrial genomes. We recover the monophyly of Phasmatodea and show the sister-group relationship between Phasmatodea and Mantophasmatodea after removal of the Embioptera and Zoraptera species. We recover the monophyly of Heteropterygidae and the paraphyly of Diapheromeridae, Phasmatidae, Lonchodidae, Lonchodinae, and Clitumninae.
Abstract
Insects of the order Phasmatodea are mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics and are best known for their remarkable camouflage as plants. In this study, we sequenced three complete mitochondrial genomes from three different families: Orestes guangxiensis, Peruphasma schultei, and Phryganistria guangxiensis. The lengths of the three mitochondrial genomes were 15,896 bp, 16,869 bp, and 17,005 bp, respectively, and the gene composition and structure of the three stick insects were identical to those of the most recent common ancestor of insects. The phylogenetic relationships among stick insects have been chaotic for a long time. In order to discuss the intra- and inter-ordinal relationship of Phasmatodea, we used the 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) of 85 species for maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses. Results showed that the internal topological structure of Phasmatodea had a few differences in both ML and BI trees and long-branch attraction (LBA) appeared between Embioptera and Zoraptera, which led to a non-monophyletic Phasmatodea. Consequently, after removal of the Embioptera and Zoraptera species, we re-performed ML and BI analyses with the remaining 81 species, which showed identical topology except for the position of Tectarchus ovobessus (Phasmatodea). We recovered the monophyly of Phasmatodea and the sister-group relationship between Phasmatodea and Mantophasmatodea. Our analyses also recovered the monophyly of Heteropterygidae and the paraphyly of Diapheromeridae, Phasmatidae, Lonchodidae, Lonchodinae, and Clitumninae. In this study, Peruphasma schultei (Pseudophasmatidae), Phraortes sp. YW-2014 (Lonchodidae), and species of Diapheromeridae clustered into the clade of Phasmatidae. Within Heteropterygidae, O. guangxiensis was the sister clade to O. mouhotii belonging to Dataminae, and the relationship of (Heteropteryginae + (Dataminae + Obriminae)) was recovered.
