Ana Carolina M. Junqueira, anacmj@unicamp.br and Ana Maria L. Azeredo-Espin, azeredo@unicamp.br. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética, Laboratório de Genética Animal, CP: 6010, Campinas, SP, Brazil
The blowflies of Calliphoridae family have substantial medical, veterinary and forensic importance because they are main agents of primary and secondary myiasis. They act as pathogens vectors and play a valuable role in providing an estimation of post-mortem interval. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the most used molecular marker in evolutionary studies and its complete sequencing has been impelled in the last years giving rise to the mitochondrial genomics. The metazoan mtDNA is circular, double-stranded molecule with maternal inheritance, usually containing 37 genes. Of the 14 dipteran mitochondrial genomes available, two are from Calliphoridae species. In order to characterize the structure and evolution of mtDNA molecules, evaluate different sets of genes for phylogenetics and to contribute in molecular evolutionary studies within Diptera, other Calliphoridae mtDNAs are being completely sequenced. The mtDNA of Chloroprocta idioidea is the third Calliphoridae mtDNA to be available and it was sequenced through shotgun of long-PCR products. Preliminary results yielded a total of 8780bp, which represents ~60% of the whole mitochondrial genome. The assembling of sequences provided five contigs that contain 7 protein-coding genes, the large rRNA subunit and 11 tRNAs. The analysis of these sequences presented a bias towards A+T, which represents 75% of the nucleotide content. The gene order is apparently the same described for other dipteran, but the gene content will need further analysis, mainly when considering the number of tRNA genes. In addition, comparative analysis will be conducted to improve primer designing, molecular identification and systematic studies in Calliphoridae. Financial support: Fapesp.
Species 1: Diptera Calliphoridae
Chloroprocta idioidea (blow fly)
Keywords: Mitochondrial genome, Phylogenetics