The complete mitochondrial genome of the Chinese oak silkmoth, Antheraea pernyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitogenome from Chinese oak silkmoth, Antheraea pernyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). The 15,566 bp circular genome contains atypical gene organization and order for lepidopteran mitogenomes. The mitogenome contains the lowest A+T content (80.16%) among the known lepidopteran mitogenome sequences. An unusual feature is the occurrence of more Ts than As, with a slightly negative AT skewness (-0.021), in the composition of the major genome strand. All protein-coding genes are initiated by ATN codons, except for cytochrome oxidase subunit I, which is proposed by the TTAG sequence as observed in other lepidopterans. All transfer RNAs (tRNAs) have a typical clover-leaf structure of mitochondrial tRNA, except for tRNA(Ser)(AGN), the DHU arm of which could not form a stable stem-loop structure. Two aligned sequence blocks with a length of more than 50 bp and 90% of the sequence identity were identified in the A+T-rich region of the Saturniidae and Bombycoidae species.