R&D CENTER

Reconstruction of Evolutionary History of Ant Mitochondrial Genomes: Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Proceratium itoi (Formicidae)

Jonghyun Park, Hong Xi, Jongsun Park
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Mitochondrial genomes are in the lead of insect genomic studies, overwhelming the number of nuclear genomes by ten times and covering all valid insect orders Here, we completed the mitochondrial genome of Proceratium itoi which is the first mitogenome in subfamily Proceratiinae and the fourth mitogenome in Poneoid clade Its length is 15,460 bp and the GC ratio is 81.3\%. With P. itoi mitochondrial genome, we can predict the ancestral state of Poneroid ants mitochondrial genome Through it, the evolutionary history of all ants can be reconstructed. The ancestral Formicidae mitochondrial gene order is thought to be same to that of ancestral insect mitochondrial gene order except tRNA Met. No rearrangements of PCGs or rRNAs were found and minor rearrangements of tRNAs were found only inside Formicoid clade. Our results will be the first step for conducting molecular phylogenomic research in understanding the evolutionary history of ants.