Meeting Abstract

P1.81  Monday, Jan. 4  The complete mtDNA sequence of the water mite Unionicola foili (Acari: Acariformes): another highly rearranged genome among Acariformes EDWARDS, DD*; ERNSTING, BR; Univ. of Evansville de3@evansville.edu

There has been increasing interest in sequencing mitochondrial genomes and using these data to study animal phylogenies. Mitochondrial genomes have been especially useful in resolving relationships among high order taxa (e.g., among phyla and classes), given that genomic features, such as gene content, gene arrangement, and secondary structures of rRNAs, are usually conserved at lower taxonomic levels (e.g., within a genus, family, or order). In contrast to most animals, low-level taxa within lineages of the Acari (mites and ticks) exhibit a high degree of variation in mt gene order and secondary structure of rRNAs and these genomic characters are being used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships within the group. As part of a much broader study that is using mt genomic data to resolve phylogenetic relationships among Unionicola mites, we sequenced the complete mt genome of Unionicola foili. Although gene content of the mt genome for U. foili is consistent with those that have been reported for other members of the Acari, its gene arrangement, along with those that have been reported for other members of the Acariformes (‘mite-like’mites), vary substantially from both the hypothetical ancestral genome for the Acari and representative species from the Parasitiformes (ticks and mesostigmatid mites). When the mt genome for U. foili was compared to the eight other Acariformes species whose mt genomes have been sequenced, gene orders were unique for seven of the eight species. Results of this study add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that lower taxonomic levels within the Acariformes exhibit extraordinary degrees of mt genome variation when compared to animals in general and other members of the Acari in particular. Future studies will address possible causes for high rates mt gene rearrangement among taxa from this mite lineage.