The first complete mitochondrial genome in the family Attevidae (Atteva aurea) of the order Lepidoptera

The superfamily Yponomeutoidea, one of the early-derived groups in the order Lepidoptera, consists of 11 families. However, mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequences, popularly used for phylogeny and evolutionary tracing, are available for only seven species across six genera and five families. Thus, a larger variety of mitogenome sequences in Yponomeutoidea are required to improve our understanding of lepidopteran phylogeny and genomic evolution. In this study, we present the complete mitogenome of Atteva aurea (Fitch, 1856), the first species in the family Attevidae (superfamily Yponomeutoidea, order Lepidoptera) to be sequenced. The complete mitogenome comprises 16,329 bp and contains a typical set of genes and one non-coding region. Within Yponomeutoidea, the mitogenome of A. aurea has a unique trnI-trnM-trnQ arrangement at the A + T-rich region and ND2 junction and trnA-ND3 arrangement at the trnG and trnRjunction. Twelve of the 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) of A. aurea have a typical ATN starting codon, whereas COI has the atypical CGA codon, which is frequently found in the starting region of lepidopteran COI. Phylogenetic analyses, based on the concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs and two rRNA genes, using the Maximum Likelihood method, revealed a sister relationship between Attevidae and Praydidae with moderately low nodal support (bootstrap support = 64%).