The mitogenome of the brown pod-sucking bug Clavigralla tomentosicollis (Hemiptera: Coreidae)

Authors: STEELE, LAURA - University Of Illinois; SUN, WEILIN - Michigan State University; VALERO, CARMEN - University Of Illinois; OJO, JAMES - Kwara State University; SEONG, KEON - University Of Illinois; Coates, Brad; MARGAM, VENU - University Of Hyderabad; TAMO, MANUELE - International Institute Of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); PITTENDRIGH, BARRY - Michigan State University

Submitted to: AGRI GENE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/10/2017
Publication Date: 7/16/2017
Citation: Steele, L.D., Sun, W., Valero, C.M., Ojo, J.A., Seong, K.M., Coates, B.S., Margam, V.M., Tamo, M., Pittendrigh, B.R. 2017. The mitogenome of the brown pod-sucking bug Clavigralla tomentosicollis (Hemiptera: Coreidae). AGRI GENE. 5:27-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aggene.2017.07.002.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aggene.2017.07.002

Interpretive Summary: Pest insects feed upon and damage cultivated legume crops including varieties of bean and pea, which results in substantial reductions in yields and grain quality. Difficulties are faced regarding the effective control of these insects due to unknown insect population dynamics that impact their timing and distribution across the landscape, and this also impact the tactics producers must apply to insect population suppression. Efforts to better understand these dynamics are severely hindered by the lack of population genetics data for most pest insect species. To partially address this, the mitochondrial genome was sequenced for a species of pod-sucking insect and defined regions that are variable within the species. These data will be important for future studies that aim to define the population genetic structure and migration of the insect, with the goal to increase the efficacy of integrated pest management strategies and increase the level of insect control for producers in the field. These data will be useful to university, industry and government stakeholders interested in the management of crop pest insects.

Technical Abstract: Brown pod-sucking bug, Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stäl (Hemiptera: Coreidae), causes significant damage to cultivated cowpea, Vigna unguiculata Walp, a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa. C. tomentosicollis pierce and suck sap from cowpea pods, resulting in reduced grain yield and quality. The complete 16,089 bp mitogenome of C. tomentosicollis encodes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and an A+T rich control region, with gene order and orientation identical to the insect ancestral gene order. The initiation and termination codons for the PCGs used standard ATN codons and TAA or TAG codons respectively. All predicted tRNAs fold into a clover-leaf secondary structures with the exception of tRNA-Ser (AGN) with a semi-loop dihydrouridine arm. The 1,509 bps A+T rich region contains a single 89 bp tandem repeat unit duplicated 3.7 times. When compared with other published Coreoidea mitogenomes, C. tomentosicollis was identical in gene order and orientation, also highly A-T skewed, and similar in both size and A-T%; however, the longer tandem repeat of the A+T rich region was unique. The C. tomentosicollis mitogenome can serve as a foundation to combine molecular marker data with pest monitoring strategies to better understand the population dynamics of this species.