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The nearly complete mitogenome of the Southeast Asian firefly Pteroptyx tener (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

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Abstract

The estuarine firefly, Pteroptyx tener, aggregates in the thousands in mangrove trees lining tidal rivers in Southeast Asia where they engage one another in a nocturnal, pre-mating ritual of synchronised courtship flashes. Unfortunately, populations of the species by virtue of being restricted to isolated estuarine rivers systems in the region, are at risk of genetic isolation. Because of this concern we undertook the task of sequencing and characterising the mitochondrial DNA genome of P. tener, as the first step towards helping us to characterise and better understand their genetic diversity. We sequenced and assembled the mitochondrial DNA genome of P. tener from two male and female specimens from the district of Kuala Selangor in Peninsular Malaysia and announce the molecules in this publication. We also reconstructed the phylogenetic trees of all available lampyrids mitogenomes and suggest the need to re-examine our current understanding of their classification which have largely been based on morphological data and the cox1 gene. Separately, our analysis of codon usage patterns among lampyrid mitogenomes showed that the codon usage in a majority of the protein-coding genes were non-neutral. Codon usage patterns between mitogenome sequences of P. tener were, however, largely neutral. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of mitochondrial genes/mitogenomes for analysing both inter- and intra- specific variation in the Lampyridae to aid in species discovery in this highly variable genus; and elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of Pteroptyx spp. from the region.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to express our deepest thanks to Mr. Kuan Kam-Hon (Executive Chairman of Hartalega Holdings Berhad, Company Registration No. 741883-X), Mr. Kuan Vin-Seung (Director, Hartalega Foundation, Company Registration No. 1275832-M) and Ms. Melissa Majid (Manager, Hartalega Foundation) for supporting our firefly conservation work through Grant No: 51-31-08-02-008 to FRIM. We also thank the Director General, FRIM and members of the Genetics Laboratory, FRIM for administrative support on the project.

Funding

Hartalega Foundation (Project No: 51-31-35-08-02-008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genetics Laboratory, Biotechnology Division, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109, Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia

    S. Cheng & S. F. Ishak

  2. Malaysia Genome Institute, National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia, Jalan Bangi, 43000, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

    M. N. Mat-Isa & I. S. Sapian

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  1. S. Cheng
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Cheng, S., Mat-Isa, M.N., Sapian, I.S. et al. The nearly complete mitogenome of the Southeast Asian firefly Pteroptyx tener (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Mol Biol Rep 48, 1281–1290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06189-0

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