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Novel Mitochondrial Gene Content and Gene Arrangement Indicate Illegitimate Inter-mtDNA Recombination in the Chigger Mite, Leptotrombidium pallidum

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Abstract

To better understand the evolution of mitochondrial (mt) genomes in the Acari (mites and ticks), we sequenced the mt genome of the chigger mite, Leptotrombidium pallidum (Arthropoda: Acari: Acariformes). This genome is highly rearranged relative to that of the hypothetical ancestor of the arthropods and the other species of Acari studied. The mt genome of L. pallidum has two genes for large subunit rRNA, a pseudogene for small subunit rRNA, and four nearly identical large noncoding regions. Nineteen of the 22 tRNAs encoded by this genome apparently lack either a T-arm or a D-arm. Further, the mt genome of L. pallidum has two distantly separated sections with identical sequences but opposite orientations of transcription. This arrangement cannot be accounted for by homologous recombination or by previously known mechanisms of mt gene rearrangement. The most plausible explanation for the origin of this arrangement is illegitimate inter-mtDNA recombination, which has not been reported previously in animals. In light of the evidence from previous experiments on recombination in nuclear and mt genomes of animals, we propose a model of illegitimate inter-mtDNA recombination to account for the novel gene content and gene arrangement in the mt genome of L. pallidum.

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Acknowledgments

We thank H, Noda (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan) for kindly providing the primers used to amplify the fragments of cob and cox1, and H. Urakami (Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences) and Cath Covacin (The University of Queensland) for invaluable discussion. We would also like to thank the Editor, the Associate Editor, and the two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the manuscript. R.S. is a postdoctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a visiting scientist of The University of Queensland, Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuyama University, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, 729-0292, Japan

    Renfu Shao, Harumi Mitani & Masahito Fukunaga

  2. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, and Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia

    Renfu Shao & Stephen C. Barker

  3. Kawagoe Senior High School, Kawagoe, Saitama, 350-0036, Japan

    Mamoru Takahashi

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  1. Renfu Shao
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  2. Harumi Mitani
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  3. Stephen C. Barker
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  4. Mamoru Takahashi
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  5. Masahito Fukunaga
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Correspondence to Renfu Shao.

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Reviewing Editor: Dr. Siv Andersson

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Shao, R., Mitani, H., Barker, S.C. et al. Novel Mitochondrial Gene Content and Gene Arrangement Indicate Illegitimate Inter-mtDNA Recombination in the Chigger Mite, Leptotrombidium pallidum. J Mol Evol 60, 764–773 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-0226-1

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