Comparative Mitogenomic Analysis of Two Cuckoo Bees (Apoidea: Anthophila: Megachilidae) with Phylogenetic Implications

Bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea and Anthophila) are distributed worldwide and considered the primary pollinators of angiosperm. Megachilidae is one of the largest families of Anthophila. In this study, two complete mitogenomes of cuckoo bees in Megachilidae, namely Coelioxys fenestrata and Euaspis polynesia, were amplified and sequenced, with a length of 17,004 bp (C. fenestrata) and 17,682 bp (E. polynesia). The obtained results show that 37 mitogenomic genes and one putative control region were conserved within Hymenoptera. Truncated stop codon T was found in the cox3 gene of E. polynesia. The secondary structure of small (rrnS) and large (rrnL) rRNA subunits contained three domains (28 helices) and five domains (44 helices) conserved within Hymenoptera, respectively. Compared with ancestral gene order, gene rearrangement events included local inversion and gene shuffling. In order to reveal the phylogenetic position of cuckoo bees, we performed phylogenetic analysis. The results supported that all families of Anthophila were monophyletic, the tribe-level relationship of Megachilidae was Osmiini + (Anthidiini + Megachilini) and Coelioxys fenestrata was clustered to the Megachile genus, which was more closely related to Megachile sculpturalis and Megachile strupigera than Euaspis polynesia.

A novel rearrangement in the mitochondrial genome of tongue sole, Cynoglossus semilaevis: control region translocation and a tRNA gene inversion

The organization of fish mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) is quite conserved, usually with the heavy strand encoding 12 of 13 protein-coding genes and 14 of 22 tRNA genes, and the light strand encoding ND6 and the remaining 8 tRNA genes. Currently, there are only a few reports on gene reorganization of fish mitogenomes, with only two types of rearrangements (shuffling and translocation) observed. No gene inversion has been detected in approximately 420 complete fish mitogenomes available so far. Here we report a novel rearrangement in the mitogenome of Cynoglossus semilaevis (Cynoglossinae, Cynoglossidae, Pleuronectiformes). The genome is 16 371 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 2 main noncoding regions, the putative control region and the light-strand replication origin. A striking finding of this study is that the tRNAGln gene is translocated from the light to the heavy strand (Q inversion). This is accompanied by shuffling of the tRNAIle gene and long-range translocation of the putative control region downstream to a site between ND1 and the tRNAGln gene. The remaining gene order is identical to that of typical fish mitogenomes. Additionally, unique characters of this mitogenome, including a high A+T content and length variations of 8 protein-coding genes, were found through comparison of the mitogenome sequence with those from other flatfishes. All the features detected and their relationships with the rearrangements, as well as a possible rearrangement pathway, are discussed. These data provide interesting information for better understanding the molecular mechanisms of gene reorganization in fish mitogenomes.

Characterization of mdcR, a Regulatory Gene of the Malonate Catabolic System in Klebsiella pneumoniae

ABSTRACT The Klebsiella pneumoniae mdcR gene, which encodes a LysR-type regulator, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Purified MdcR was found to bind specifically to the control region of either the malonate decarboxylase (mdc) genes ormdcR. We have also demonstrated that MdcR is an activator of the expression of the mdc genes, whereas it represses the transcription of the putative control region of mdcR, P mdcR , indicating a negative autoregulatory control.