The complete mitochondrial genome of Vanessa indica and phylogenetic analyses of the family Nymphalidae.

Vanessa indica is a small butterfly lacking historical molecular and biological research. Vanessa indica belongs to the family Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), which is the largest group of butterflies and are nearly ubiquitous. However, after more than a century of taxonomic and molecular studies, there is no consensus for family classification, and the phylogenetic relationships within Nymphalidae are controversial. The first objective was to sequence and characterize the complete mitochondrial genome of V. indica. The most important objective was to completely reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships for family members within Nymphalidae. The mitochondrial genomic DNA (mtDNA) of V. indica was extracted and amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The complete mitochondrial sequence was annotated and characterized by analyzing sequences with SeqMan program. The phylogenetic analyses were conducted on thirteen protein coding genes (PCGs) in 95 mtDNA of Nymphalidae downloaded from GenBank for reference using the maximum likelihood method and Bayesian inference to ensure the validity of the results. The complete mitogenome was a circular molecule with 15,191 bp consisting of 13 protein coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and an A + T-rich region (D-loop). The nucleotide composition of the genome was highly biased for A + T content, which accounts for 80.0% of the nucleotides. All the tRNAs have putative secondary structures that are characteristic of mitochondrial tRNAs, except tRNA