Molecular phylogeny inferred from the mitochondrial genomes of Plecoptera with Oyamia nigribasis (Plecoptera: Perlidae)

In this study, the mitochondrial genome of the stonefly, Oyamia nigribasis Banks, 1920 (Plecoptera: Perlidae), was sequenced and compared with the mtDNA genomes of 38 other stoneflies and two Ephemerae. The O. nigribasis mitogenome is a circular 15,923 bp molecule that encodes a large, noncoding control region (CR) and 37 typical mtDNA genes; these include 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), respectively. Most of the PCGs initiated with ATN and terminated with TAN. The dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of tRNASer (AGN) was missing, whereas the other 21 tRNAs all exhibited the typical cloverleaf secondary structure. Stem-loop (SL) structures and tandem repeats were identified in the CR. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood were undertaken to determine relationships between stoneflies. Results indicated that the Antarctoperlaria, which contains Gripopterygidae, was absolutely separated from Arctoperlaria; this finding agrees with morphology. Finally, the overall relationships could be summarized as follows ((((Notonemouridae + Nemouridae) + Leuctridae) + (Scopuridae + (Capniidae + Taeniopterygidae))) + (((Perlodidae + Chloroperlidae) + Perlidae) + (Pteronarcyidae + (Peltoperlidae + Styloperlidae))) + ((Diamphipnoidae + Eustheniidae) + Gripopterygidae)).