Mitogenomics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Mantodea

Mitogenomic studies of Mantodea have transformed our understanding of praying mantis evolution by exploiting complete mitochondrial genomes as versatile molecular markers. These circular genomes, typically comprising 37 genes and a control region, exhibit both conserved organisation and lineage-specific variation, including gene rearrangements, duplications and length variation in non-coding regions. Integrating mitogenome data with nuclear loci and employing advanced modelling approaches has clarified higher-level relationships, tested the monophyly of major clades and resolved the position of enigmatic taxa. By mitigating compositional bias and heterotachy through site-heterogeneous models, researchers have achieved greater phylogenetic accuracy. This body of work underpins taxonomy, biogeography and conservation, shedding light on the global diversification of mantises and their ecological roles.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Seminal research delivered the first systematic survey of tRNA gene rearrangements across mantodean mitogenomes. Sequencing eight species from diverse families revealed multiple tandem duplications and the inaugural case of tRNA anticodon mutation leading to functional reassignment—unique among insects. Despite variable gene orders, analyses showed stable codon usage and base composition. Phylogenetic reconstructions indicated limited signal from tRNA features alone but demonstrated that mitogenome architecture can inform deep splits. These findings established genome rearrangements as evolutionary markers and highlighted mitogenomics as a robust framework for testing mantis diversification hypotheses.

Mitogenomics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Mantodea publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in mitogenomics and phylogenetic analysis of mantodea across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Mitogenome: The complete mitochondrial genome, usually a circular DNA molecule encoding 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs and 2 ribosomal RNAs.

Monophyly: A grouping that contains a common ancestor and all its descendants.

Site-heterogeneous mixture model: A phylogenetic modelling approach that accommodates variation in substitution processes across different sequence sites.

Tandem replication–random loss (TDRL) model: A mechanism for gene rearrangement in which a genomic segment is duplicated and one copy is subsequently lost at random.

Non-coding region (NCR): A DNA segment that does not encode proteins or structural RNAs, often involved in regulatory functions or genome organisation.

References

1. Exploring the Mitogenomes of Mantodea: New Insights from Structural Diversity and Higher-Level Phylogenomic Analyses. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023).
2. Mitochondrial genomes of praying mantises (Dictyoptera, Mantodea): rearrangement, duplication, and reassignment of tRNA genes. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Novel Mitochondrial Gene Rearrangement and Intergenic Regions Exist in the Mitochondrial Genomes from Four Newly Established Families of Praying Mantises (Insecta: Mantodea). Insects (2022).