| Summary: | <p>The 16, 470 bp nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of an assassin bug from the reduviid subfamily Harpactorinae, <i>Agriosphodrus dohrni,</i> has been revealed. The entire genome encodes for two ribosomal RNA genes (<i>rrnL</i> and <i>rrnS</i>), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 13 protein-coding genes, and a control region. The nucleotide composition is biased toward adenine and thymine (A+T = 72.2%). Comparative analysis with two other reduviid species <i>Triatoma dimidiata</i> and <i>Valentia hoffmanni, </i>exhibited highly conserved genome architectures including genome contents, gene order, nucleotide composition, codon usage, amino acid composition, as well as genome asymmetry. All protein-coding genes use standard mitochondrial initiation codons (methionine and isoleucine), except that <i>nad1</i> starts with GTG. All tRNAs have the classic clover-leaf structure, except that the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of <i>tRNA<sup>Ser(AGN)</sup></i> forms a simple loop<i>.</i> Secondary structure comparisons of the two mitochondrial ribosomal subunits among sequenced assassin bugs show that the sequence and structure of <i>rrnL</i> is more conservative than that of <i>rrnS</i>. The presence of structural elements in the control region is also discussed, with emphasis on their implications in the regulation of replication and/or transcription of the reduviid mitogenome. The phylogenetic analyses indicated that within Reduviidae, Harpactorinae is a sister group to the Salyavatinae + Triatominae clade.</p>
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