Different mitochondrial gene orders among insects: exchanged tRNA gene positions in the COII/COIII region between an orthopteran and a dipteran species.

We have cloned and sequenced a 2.65 kb segment of the mtDNA molecule of the orthopteran insect Locusta migratoria. It harbors the genes for four mitochondrial tRNAs, for cytochrome c oxidase subunits II and III and for ATPase subunits 6 and 8. The order of the locust genes resembles that of Drosophila yakuba: in both insects the genes for COII and ATPase 8 are separated from each other by the genes encoding tRNA(lys) and tRNA(asp), but in the locust, the positions of the two tRNA genes are reversed. This leads to a different mitochondrial gene order in the two insects.