The complete mitochondrial genome of Parafronurus youi (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) and phylogenetic position of the Ephemeroptera

The first complete mitochondrial genome of a mayfly, Parafronurus youi (Arthropoda: Insecta: Pterygota: Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae), was sequenced using a long PCR-based approach. The genome is a circular molecule of 15,481 bp in length, and encodes the set of 38 genes. Among them, 37 genes are found in other conservative insect mitochondrial genomes, and the 38th unique gene is trnM-like (trnM2). The duplication–random loss model can be used to explain one of the translocations at least. The A + T content of the control region is 57%, the lowest proportion detected so far in Hexapoda. Based on the nucleotide dataset and the corresponding amino acid dataset of 12 protein-coding genes, Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood analyses yielded stable support for the relationship of the three basal clades of winged insects as Ephemeroptera + (Odonata + Neoptera).