Complete mitochondrial genome of the wild eri silkworm, Samia canningi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

AbstractThe saturniid silkworm species of the genus Samia are potential silk producing insects. Thus, Samia canningi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a potential candidate to introduce for silk production. The complete mitochondrial genome of S. canningi was 15,384 bp long that contained 37 genes along with a control region. The arrangement of the PCGs was same as the majority of Lepidoptera, presenting the order, trnM/trnI/trnQ between nad2 and control region. Twelve of 13 PCGs started with ATN codons, but cox2 with GTG, which is often found in insects. Genes overlapped in a total of 29 bp, 221 bp of intergenic spacer sequences was found in seventeen regions and the longest 54 bp one was found between trnQ and nad2 as typical in Lepidoptera. In lrRNA, the 21-bp long, tandemly duplicated repeat was characteristically found (TAAAATTATTTATAATATAAA) between 13,663 and 13,706. AT rich region has the motif “ATAGA” and 18 bp poly T stretch, typically conserved in Lepidoptera.