Research Center for Endangered Species in National Institute of Ecology was recently established in Yeongyang, Gyeongsangbuk-do on October 2018. As a new research center, we are actively developing research projects even though we have lots of hurdles. Among 26 endangered insect species, five species have been focused as restoring insect. Recently, the focus of restoration strategy was changed from species to habitat. To protect the insects from extinction, we will conserve the original habitat and cooperate with the local community. As a starting research center, we are open to all of your opinion to restore endangered insects in Korea.

Two complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of the endangered, lycaenid butterflies, Spindasis takanonis and Protantigius superans (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), were sequenced. Each 15,349 bp and 15,248 bp-long genome contained both the lepidopteran specific gene arrangement that differ from the most common arrangement of insects by the movement of tRNAMet to a position 5’-upstream of tRNAIle. Neither of the species have typical COI start codon. Instead, the CGA (arginine) sequence that is commonly present in all other lepidopterans was also found in both lycaenids. The possible binding site for the transcription termination peptide, TACTA sequence, also was well retained in both species. The high A+T-content, which is a characteristic of insect mitogenomes was well reflected in the genomes in the form of higher frequency of codons with A/T nucleotides, severe A/T bias in 3rd codon position, and extremely high A/T content in the A+T-rich region. The 19 bp-long poly-T stretch and the downstream conserved motif ATAG, which were suggested previously to function as a structural signal for minor-strand mtDNA replication, was also well conserved in the A+T-rich region of both lycaenids. Phylogenetic analysis among lepidopteran superfamilies supported the relationships of either (((((Bombycoidea + Geometroidea) + Noctuoidea) + Papilionoidea) + Pyraloidea) + Tortricoidea) by concatenated amino acid sequence or (((((Bombycoidea + Geometroidea) + Noctuoidea) + Pyraloidea) + Papilionoidea) + Tortricoidea) by concatenated nucleotide sequences of 1st and 2nd codon positions of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes, revealing fluctuating positions of Papilionoidea and Pyraloidea between the two data sets.

Eumenis autonoe belonging to a lepidopteran family Nymphalidae (superfamily Papilionoidea) is an endangered species in Korea. Historically, the species was distributed in Europe and Asian region including a wide region in Korean peninsula. However, in Korean peninsula, the species is found only in two isolate dregions: South in a remote island Jeju, where altitude is higher than1, 400 meter on Halla Mt. and North in far northern Korean peninsula around Mt. Bekdu. In this study, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of the endangered E. autonoe collected from Mt. Halla. The 15,489-bp long E. autonoe genome has a typical gene content found in animal mitochondrial genomes and contains the gene arrangement identical to all other sequenced lepidopteran insects, which differs from the most common type found in insects, as the result of the movement of tRNAMet to a position 5’-upstream of tRNAIle. As seen in many other lepidopteran insects, no typical ATN codon for COI gene is available. Thus, we tentatively designated the CGA (arginine) found at the beginning of the COI gene, as has been suggested for lepidopteran COI starter. The intergenic spacer sequence located between tRNASer (UCN) and ND1 of E. autonoe mitogenome also contains the ATACTAA motif which is conserved in all sequenced lepidopteran species. The 678-bp long A+T-rich region, which is longest in sequenced lepidopteran insects contains ten identical tandem repeats composed of 27 bp plus one 13-bp long identical incomplete final repeat. Such repeat sequence is rare in the lepidopteran mitogenomes known so far. The E. autonoe A+T-rich region also contains a poly-T stretch located at the end of the region as 19 bp and also contains the downstream conserved motif ATAGA that were previously suggested to serve as a structural signal for minor-strand mtDNA replication. Phylogenetic analysis using the concatenated 13 amino acid sequences of PCGs among available six lepidopteran superfamilies (Tortricoidea, Pyraloidea, Papilionoidea, Bombycoidea, Geometroidea, and Noctuoidea) rooted with three dipteran species with BI and ML analyses supported the following topology: ((((Bombycoidea + Geometroidea +Noctuoidea) + Papilionoidea) + Pyraloidea) + Tortricoidea). Within Papilionoidea, a closer relationship between Lycaenidae and Pieridae, excluding Nymphalidae was observed. Further fruitful information will be available after more analysis is done.