Complete mitochondrial genome of Macrosteles quadrimaculatus (Matsumura) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) with a shared tRNA rearrangement and its phylogenetic implications

Comparative studies of leafhopper mitochondrial genomes suggest that genome rearrangements are very rare in these insects but that nucleotide sequences are informative of phylogenetic relationships at various levels of divergence. A recent study reported that tRNA cluster trnW-trnC-trnY is rearranged to trnC-trnW-trnY in the Aster Leafhopper, Macrosteles quadrilineatus, an economically important North American species. The complete mitochondrial genome of the East Asian species, Macrosteles quadrimaculatus, sequenced and annotated here for the first time, reveals that this species shares the same tRNA rearrangement, suggesting it is a genus-level trait. The entire mitogenome of M. quadrimaculatus is a circular molecule 15,734 bp in size comprising 37 genes and one control region, which is similar to other studied hemipteran mitogenomes. The whole mitogenome sequence shows heavily A + T biased nucleotide composition (77.7%) and moderately positive AT-skews (0.120). Except for the nad5 gene which starts with TTG and ends with incomplete codon T, all protein-coding genes begin with ATN codons and terminate with TAA. All tRNA genes have typical cloverleaf secondary structures, except for trnS1, in which dihydrouridine (DHU) stem is simplified to form a loop structure. Phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide sequence datasets recovered Macrosteles as monophyletic and sister to the rest of Deltocephalinae.