Abstract
The 16, 470 bp nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of an assassin bug from the reduviid subfamily Harpactorinae, Agriosphodrus dohrni, has been revealed. The entire genome encodes for two ribosomal RNA genes (rrnL and rrnS), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 13 protein-coding genes, and a control region. The nucleotide composition is biased toward adenine and thymine (A+T = 72.2%). Comparative analysis with two other reduviid species Triatoma dimidiata and Valentia hoffmanni, exhibited highly conserved genome architectures including genome contents, gene order, nucleotide composition, codon usage, amino acid composition, as well as genome asymmetry. All protein-coding genes use standard mitochondrial initiation codons (methionine and isoleucine), except that nad1 starts with GTG. All tRNAs have the classic clover-leaf structure, except that the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of tRNA(Ser(AGN)) forms a simple loop. Secondary structure comparisons of the two mitochondrial ribosomal subunits among sequenced assassin bugs show that the sequence and structure of rrnL is more conservative than that of rrnS. The presence of structural elements in the control region is also discussed, with emphasis on their implications in the regulation of replication and/or transcription of the reduviid mitogenome. The phylogenetic analyses indicated that within Reduviidae, Harpactorinae is a sister group to the Salyavatinae + Triatominae clade.