The complete mitogenome of a jumping spider Carrhotus xanthogramma (Araneae: Salticidae) and comparative analysis in four salticid mitogenomes.

The complete mitogenome of the jumping spider Carrhotus xanthogramma was determined and comparative analysis among four salticid mitogenomes was conducted. The circular genome is 14,563 bp in size and contains a complete set of genes that usually present in the metazoa. All of the 13 protein-coding genes begin with a typical ATN codon and stop with the canonical stop codons, except for ND4 and ND4L genes with an incomplete stop codon T. All of the tRNAs cannot be formed the fully paired acceptor stems and seven out of them cannot be folded into the typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structures. The tRNA Glu gene translocates its position as compared to the mitogenomes of other three determined jumping spiders. The A+T content of the majority strand and the A+T-rich region are 75.1 and 80%, respectively. The phylogenetic relationships based on concatenated nucleotide and amino acid sequences of 13 protein-coding genes using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods indicated that mitogenome sequences were useful in resolving higher-level relationship of Araneae.

Characterization of the complete mitogenomes of two Neoscona spiders (Araneae: Araneidae) and its phylogenetic implications.

The complete mitogenomes of two orb-weaving spiders Neoscona doenitzi and Neoscona nautica were determined and a comparative mitogenomic analysis was performed to depict evolutionary trends of spider mitogenomes. The circular mitogenomes are 14,161bp with A+T content of 74.6% in N. doenitzi and 14,049bp with A+T content of 78.8% in N. nautica, respectively. Both mitogenomes contain a standard set of 37 genes typically presented in metazoans. Gene content and orientation are identical to all previously sequenced spider mitogenomes, while gene order is rearranged by tRNAs translocation when compared with the putative ancestral gene arrangement pattern presented by Limulus polyphemus. A comparative mitogenomic analysis reveals that the nucleotide composition bias is obviously divergent between spiders in suborder Opisthothelae and Mesothelae. The loss of D-arm in the trnS(UCN) among all of Opisthothelae spiders highly suggested that this common feature is a synapomorphy for entire suborder Opisthothelae. Moreover, the trnS(AGN) in araneoids preferred to use TCT as an anticodon rather than the typical anticodon GCT. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 13 protein-coding gene sequences consistently yields trees that nest the two Neoscona spiders within Araneidae and recover superfamily Araneoidea as a monophyletic group. The molecular information acquired from the results of this study should be very useful for future research on mitogenomic evolution and genetic diversities in spiders.

The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of two Tetragnatha Spiders (Araneae: Tetragnathidae): Severe Truncation of tRNAs and Novel Gene Rearrangements in Araneae.

Mitogenomes can provide information for phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary biology. The Araneae is one of the largest orders of Arachnida with great economic importance. In order to develop mitogenome data for this significant group, we determined the complete mitogenomes of two long jawed spiders Tetragnatha maxillosa and T. nitens and performed the comparative analysis with previously published spider mitogenomes. The circular mitogenomes are 14578 bp long with A+T content of 74.5% in T. maxillosa and 14639 bp long with A+T content of 74.3% in T. nitens, respectively. Both the mitogenomes contain a standard set of 37 genes and an A+T-rich region with the same gene orientation as the other spider mitogenomes, with the exception of the different gene order by the rearrangement of two tRNAs (trnW and trnG). Most of the tRNAs lose TΨC arm stems and have unpaired amino acid acceptor arms. As interesting features, both trnS(AGN) and trnS(UCN) lack the dihydrouracil (DHU) arm and long tandem repeat units are presented in the A+T-rich region of both the spider mitogenomes. The phylogenetic relationships of 23 spider mitogenomes based on the concatenated nucleotides sequences of 13 protein-coding genes indicated that the mitogenome sequences could be useful in resolving higher-level relationship of Araneae. The molecular information acquired from the results of this study should be very useful for future researches on mitogenomic evolution and genetic diversities in spiders.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the wolf spider Wadicosa fidelis (Araneae: Lycosidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of the wolf spider Wadicosa fidelis was determined. It is a circular molecule of 14,741 bp in length and contains a standard set of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs and a control region. The A + T content of the overall base composition of majority strand (J-strand) is 76.1% (T: 43.0%; C: 8.2%; A:33.1%; G: 15.7%). Start codons in all 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) follow the ATN rule, except of four genes (COII, COII, ND4 and ND6), which have TTG start codon. The usual termination codons (TAA and TAG) are found from nine PCGs. However, COI, ND1, ND4L, ND5 had an incomplete termination codon (T). The control region (D-loop) is 1071 bp long with 67.9% A + T content, and contains a long tandem repeat region, which is comprising three full 215 bp copies and a partial fourth (87 bp) copy.

The complete mitochondrial genome of wolf spider Pirata subpiraticus Boes.et str. (Araneae: Lycosidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of a wolf spider Pirata subpiraticus was determined. It is a circular molecule of 14,528 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 21 transfer RNAs (tRNA(Gly) is lost) and a control region. The A + T content of the overall base composition of majority strand (J-strand) is 75.6% (T: 42.0%; C: 8.6%; A:33.6%; G: 15.8%). Among protein-coding genes, one genes (COIII) start with TTG, four genes (ND1, ND2, ATP8 and Cytb) begin with ATT and other eight genes use ATA as initiation codon. ND2 and Cytb are terminated with TAG as stop codon, while all other genes end with TAA. Three isolated sequences repeat regions (212 bp) were found in the A+T-rich region (D-loop).

The complete mitochondrial genome of orb-weaving spider Araneus ventricosus (Araneae: Araneidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of an orb-weaving spider Araneus ventricosus was determined. It is a circular molecule of 14,617 bp in length and contains a standard set of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs and a control region. The A + T content of the overall base composition of majority strand (J-strand) is 73.4% (T: 38.5%; C: 10.1%; A: 34.9%; G: 16.5%). Among protein-coding genes, one gene (COI) begins with TTA, two (ATP6 and ND4) start with ATA, three (COII, COIII and ND6) begin with ATT and other seven genes use ATT as initiation codon. COIII and ND3 end with an incomplete stop codon (T), and ND1, ND2 and Cytb are terminated with TAG, while all other genes end with TAA as stop codon. Two regions including tandem repeats were found in the control region (D-loop): a 106 bp sequence tandemly repeated twice and a 195 bp sequence tandemly repeated twice with a partial third (120 bp).

The complete mitochondrial genome of the orb-weaving spider Neoscona theisi (Walckenaer) (Araneae: Araneidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of an orb-weaving spider Neoscona theisi (Walckenaer) is determined in this article. It is a typical circular duplex DNA molecule with a length of 14,156 bp, which encodes the same 37 genes as all metazoan mitogenomes and an A + T-rich region (D-loop). The overall A + T content is 75.2% (A: 35.5%; T: 39.8%; G: 15.6%; C: 9.3%). All of the protein-coding genes were initiated by ATN, with the exceptions in three genes. COI has a TTA start codon, COII, COIII and ND6 use TTG as initiation codon. Three genes (ND3, COII and ND5) end with incomplete stop codons (T or TA), while all other genes terminated with canonical stop codons (TAA or TAG). Among 22 transfer RNAs genes, six of them (tRNAAla, tRNASer(AGN), tRNASer(UCN), tRNAGly, tRNAArg and tRNAHis) lack the potential to form the cloverleaf-shaped secondary structure. The A + T-rich region is 559 bp with an A + T content of 79.6%.

The complete mitochondrial genomes of two orb-weaving spider Cyrtarachne nagasakiensis (Strand, 1918) and Hypsosinga pygmaea (Sundevall, 1831) (Araneae: Araneidae).

The complete mitogenomes of Cyrtarachne nagasakiensis and Hypsosinga pygmaea are determined to be 14,402 and 14,193 bp in length, with the A + T content of 75.7% and 76.1%, respectively. All protein-coding genes in both spiders start with the initiation codons (ATT, ATA, TTA or TTG) that are usually used in Araneae mitogenomes, and terminate with canonical stop codon TAA or TAG except for ND5 in both spiders and ND4L in H. pygmaea, which end with the incomplete codon TA or T instead. Most of the tRNAs lack the potential to form the typically cloverleaf-shaped secondary structures and none of tandem repeats are present in the control regions of both spider mitogenomes. The phylogenetic analysis based on the Bayesian inference dataset shows a good resolution of relationship of C. nagasakiensis and H. pygmaea in Araneidae.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the orb-weaver spider Cyclosa argenteoalba Boes. et Str. (Araneae: Araneidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of an orb-weaver spider Cyclosa argenteoalba is determined in this article. The genome encodes the same 37 genes with a length of 14,575 bp as all other metazoan mitogenomes. The A + T content of the majority strand is 73.1%. Among the protein-coding genes, one gene (COI) begins with TTA, three (COII, COIII and ND6) start with ATT, three (ATP6, ND3 and ND4) begin with ATA and other six genes use ATT as initiation codon. All the protein-coding genes end with the canonical termination codons (TAA or TAG), except for ND3 and ND4L, which use an incomplete stop codon (T). Thirteen transfer RNAs genes lack the potential to form the cloverleaf-shaped secondary structure. The A + T-rich region is 1052 bp in length with an A + T content of 68.9%. In the phylogenetic analyses, C. argenteoalba was nested within Araneidae and the species from the superfamily Araneoidea form a momophyletic group.