3.1 Mitogenome organization and nucleotide composition
The mitogenome of C. chinensis is a double-stranded circular DNA molecule, containing 37 typical mitochondrial genes (13 PCGs, 22 tRNAs, and two rRNAs) and a large control region (Table 1, Fig. 1), which are common in bilaterian animals [2]. The newly sequenced mitogenome (length: 18,680 bp) is medium-sized compared to other Curculioninae mitogenomes (ranging from 16,852 bp Curculio. davidi, GenBank accession: NC_034293 to 19,216 bp Curculio sp. GenBank accession: MG728095) [9]. Variation in the size of the control region is the main source of the length variation in Curculioninae mitogenomes. The mitogenome of C. chinensis has the same gene order as other previously sequenced Curculioninae species [9, 22, 23]. A total of 71 overlapping nucleotides were found in ten pairs of neighboring genes, the longest overlap (23 bp) was identified between the trnL1 and rrnL. Furthermore, there are 2,033 intergenic nucleotides disperse across 14 gene boundaries, and the longest intergenic region (1,882 bp) is located between trnI and trnQ.
Table 1
Mitogenomic organization of C. chinensis.
Name | Location | Size (bp) | Intergenic nucleotides | Codon | Strand |
From | To | Start | Stop |
trnI | 1 | 65 | 65 | | | | + |
trnQ | 1948 | 2016 | 69 | 1882 | | | - |
trnM | 2018 | 2085 | 68 | 1 | | | + |
nad2 | 2089 | 3096 | 1008 | 3 | ATA | TAA | + |
trnW | 3111 | 3174 | 64 | 14 | | | + |
trnC | 3174 | 3239 | 66 | -1 | | | - |
trnY | 3242 | 3305 | 64 | 2 | | | - |
cox1 | 3298 | 4842 | 1545 | -8 | ATT | TAA | + |
trnL2 | 4838 | 4902 | 65 | -5 | | | + |
cox2 | 4903 | 5586 | 684 | | ATT | TAA | + |
trnK | 5588 | 5658 | 71 | 1 | | | + |
trnD | 5661 | 5725 | 65 | 2 | | | + |
atp8 | 5726 | 5884 | 159 | | ATT | TAA | + |
atp6 | 5881 | 6552 | 672 | -4 | ATA | TAA | + |
cox3 | 6563 | 7343 | 781 | 10 | ATT | T | + |
trnG | 7344 | 7407 | 64 | | | | + |
nad3 | 7408 | 7761 | 354 | | ATT | TAG | + |
trnA | 7760 | 7826 | 67 | -2 | | | + |
trnR | 7827 | 7888 | 62 | | | | + |
trnN | 7887 | 7950 | 64 | -2 | | | + |
trnS1 | 7951 | 8017 | 67 | | | | + |
trnE | 8025 | 8088 | 64 | 7 | | | + |
trnF | 8089 | 8153 | 65 | | | | - |
nad5 | 8137 | 9873 | 1737 | -17 | ATT | TAA | - |
trnH | 9874 | 9936 | 63 | | | | - |
nad4 | 9937 | 11272 | 1336 | | ATG | T | - |
nad4L | 11266 | 11559 | 294 | -7 | ATG | TAA | - |
trnT | 11562 | 11626 | 65 | 2 | | | + |
trnP | 11627 | 11692 | 66 | | | | - |
nad6 | 11695 | 12198 | 504 | 2 | ATT | TAA | + |
cob | 12202 | 13338 | 1137 | 3 | ATA | TAA | + |
trnS2 | 13339 | 13405 | 67 | | | | + |
nad1 | 13509 | 14459 | 951 | 103 | TTG | TAG | - |
trnL1 | 14461 | 14525 | 65 | 1 | | | - |
rrnL | 14503 | 15831 | 1329 | -23 | | | - |
trnV | 15830 | 15895 | 66 | -2 | | | - |
rrnS | 15896 | 16683 | 788 | | | | - |
Control region | 16684 | 18680 | 1997 | | | | + |
The nucleotide content of the Curculioninae mitogenomes exhibits strong AT bias: (72.5%-77.5%) in the whole genome, (71%-76.1%) in the PCGs, (74.6%-78.3%) in the tRNAs, (76.4%-78.8%) in the rRNAs, and (73.9%-85.6%) in the control region (Tables S4-S12). In almost all sequenced mitogenome of Curculioninae, PCGs have the lowest AT content, while the control region has the highest AT content (except for Anthonomus eugenii, A. rectirostris, A. pomorum, and Elaeidobius kamerunicus) [22, 23]. All nine Curculioninae mitogenomes have positive AT-skews (0.04–0.085) and negative GC-skews (− 0.17 to − 0.224), similar to other recently reported weevil mitogenomes [23–26] and most other insects [27].
3.2 Protein-coding genes
The total size of all 13 PCGs of C. chinensis is 11,160 bp, accounting for 59.74% of the entire mitogenome (Table 1). In 13 PCGs, nad2, cox1, cox2, atp8, atp6, cox3, nad3, nad5, nad4, nad4L, nad6, and cob use ATN (ATA/T/G/C) as the start codon, while nad1 is initiated by TTG, which is common for Curculioninae mitogenomes [9, 22, 23]. All PCGs stopped with TAA/G, or their incomplete form single T-. The incomplete termination codon single T- can be completed by post-transcriptional polyadenylation [28]. The AT-skews of the all PCGs among Curculioninae range from − 0.13 (A. rectirostris and E. kamerunicus) [22, 23] to -0.146 (C. davidi) [9], showing a biased use for the T nucleotide. The relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) of C. chinensis mitogenome is presented in Fig. 2, indicating Leu, Phe, and Ile are the three most frequently used amino acids. In the new mitogenome, the four most frequently utilized codons are UUA-Leu, UUU-Phe, AUU-Ile, and AUA-Met. The most frequently used codons are composed of A nucleotide or U nucleotide, which reflects the high AT content of PCGs.
3.3. Transfer and ribosomal RNA genes
The typical sets of 22 tRNAs were identified with the sizes ranging from 62 bp (trnR) to 71 bp (trnK) (Table 1). The AT content of tRNAs (74.6%-78.3%) was slightly higher than that of the PCGs (72.5%-77.5%) (Tables S4-S12). Most tRNAs have clover-leaf secondary structures, except for trnS1, where the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm became a simple loop (Fig. 3). This feature is common in metazoan mitogenomes [29]. There are a total of 30 mismatched base pairs belong to six types (U-G, U-U, A-C, A-G, U-C, and A-A) were found in the arm structures of the 22 tRNAs.
The length of rrnS and rrnL genes ranges from 2,043 bp (E. kamerunicus) [23] to 2,117 bp (C. chinensis), and AT content of rRNAs is conserved in the Curculioninae (Tables S4-S12). For C. chinensis, the rrnL gene (length: 1329 bp) is encoded between trnL1 and trnV, and the rrnS gene (length: 788 bp) is encoded between trnV and the control region, similar to other sequenced Curculioninae [9, 22, 23].
3.4 Control region
The control region regulates the replication and transcription of mtDNA [1, 2]. In all sequenced Curculioninae mitogenomes, the control regions are located between rrnS and trnI. Tandem repeats finder analysis [13] found different numbers of tandem repeat units in the nine complete Curculioninae mitogenomes (Fig. 4). Two types of tandem repeats were discovered in the A. pomorum control region (length: 1508 bp; nucleotide positions: 838 to 877 and 1,296 to 1,354). The control region of A. rectirostris (length: 1505 bp), C. chinensis (length: 1997 bp), C. davidi (length: 2138 bp), Curculio elephas (length: 2128 bp), Curculio sp. (length: 2360 bp), and E. kamerunicus (length: 2588 bp) each have one kind of tandem repeat, at positions 461 to 528, 403 to 909, 489 to 701, 242 to 637, 621 to 760, and 486 to 719, respectively. However, in A. eugenii and Anthonomus rubi control regions, no tandem repeat units were identified. Tandem repeats are believed to be involved in the control of DNA methylation, gene transcription and replication [30, 31].
3.5 Phylogenetic relationships
Based on ML and BI analyses of nucleotide data of 13 PCGs and two rRNAs, we reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships of 91 species of Coleoptera. The trees of two analyses have largely congruent topologies, with most branches strongly supported (Figs. 5–6). Furthermore, relationships recovered in our analyses are similar to those found by Song et al. [24]. As in recent phylogenetic analyses of Curculionidae [32, 33], deep internal nodes within the family are not consistent and received weak support. For instance, in the BI tree (Fig. 6), Cryptorhynchinae is sister to the clade comprising Ceutorhynchinae, Curculioninae, Molytinae, and Alcidinae, while in the ML tree (Fig. 5), Cryptorhynchinae, Molytinae, Ceutorhynchinae, and part of Curculioninae (E. kamerunicus, C. chinensis, C. sp., C. davidi, and C. elephas) cluster a clade sister to the remaining Curculioninae (A. eugenii, A. rubi, A. rectirostris, A. pomorum, and Bradybatus kellneri). The clade comprising Platypodinae and Dryophthorinae is sister to the other Curculionidae both in ML and BI trees (BS = 100; PP = 1.00), consistent with previous studies [24, 33].
All analyses consistently support the monophyly of Curculionidae and some included subfamilies (Platypodinae, Dryophthorinae, and Cryptorhynchinae) with strong support (BS > 96; PP = 1.00). Relationships among Platypodinae, Dryophthorinae, Entiminae, Cyclominae, Scolytinae, and a clade comprising Ceutorhynchinae, Curculioninae, Molytinae, and Alcidinae, were largely congruent across both ML and BI (Figs. 5–6), and the support of most branches is high (BS > 92; PP = 1.00). Within Curculioninae, the monophyly of the genus Curculio was recovered with strong support (BS = 100; PP = 1.00), in agreement with previous studies [24, 32].