Expanding our Knowledge on the Mitochondrial Genomes of the Tamarisk Leaf Beetles, Diorhabda spp.
Payton Wills1*, Zeynep Ozsoy 2
1 Department of Biological Sciences, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado, USA;
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado, USA;
Tamarisk is an introduced, invasive plant species that has dominated the riverbeds across the Northern American continent since the 1800s. Tamarisk leaf beetles, Diorhabda spp, were introduced into these environments beginning in 2001 as a biological control agent to contain the spread of Tamarisk. There are currently four known and described species of the Diorhabda beetle in North America that originate from different regions of the world. The mitochondrial genomes of two of the species, Diorhabda carinata and Diorhabda carinulata, have been previously assembled using sequences from shot gun sequencing. Here we report the mitochondrial genomes of the remaining two species, Diorhabda sublineata and Diorhabda elongata, that are being assembled from Sanger sequencing data.