Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agri Gene journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aggene The mitogenome of the brown pod-sucking bug Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stäl (Hemiptera: Coreidae) Laura D. Steele a,⁎ , Weilin Sun b , M. Carmen Valero a,c , James Adebayo Ojo d , Keon Mook Seong a , Brad S. Coates e , Venu M. Margam f , Manuele Tamò g , Barry R. Pittendrigh b a Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA b Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA c Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA. d Department of Crop Production, Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin, Nigeria e United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Corn Insect and Crop Genetics Research Unit, Genetics Laboratory, Iowa State University, USA f Aspire Food Group, Kumasi, Ghana g International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Cotonou, Benin ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Clavigralla tomentosicollis Pod-sucking bug Cowpea Vigna unguiculata mitogenome Coreoidea ABSTRACT The brown pod-sucking bug, Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stäl (Hemiptera: Coreidae), causes significant damage to cultivated cowpea, Vigna unguiculata Walp, a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa. C. tomentosicollis pierce and suck sap from cowpea pods, resulting in reduced grain yield and quality. The complete, 16,089 bp mitogenome of C. tomentosicollis encodes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and an A + T rich control region, with gene order and orientation identical to that of the insect ancestral gene order. The initiation and termination codons for the PCGs used standard ATN codons and TAA or TAG codons respectively. All predicted tRNAs fold into a clover-leaf secondary structures with the exception of tRNA-Ser (AGN) with a semi-loop dihydrouridine arm. The 1509 bps A + T rich region contains a single 89 bp tandem repeat unit duplicated 3.7 times. When compared with other published Coreoidea mitogenomes, C. tomentosi- collis was also highly A - T skewed, and similar in both size and A - T%; however, its longer tandem repeat within the A + T rich region was unique. The C. tomentosicollis mitogenome can serve as a foundation to combine molecular marker data with pest monitoring strategies to better understand the population dynamics of this species. 1. Introduction Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata Walp.) is a legume crop that serves as a major food staple in sub-Saharan Africa, grown for both human and animal consumption (Singh and Singh, 2015). Cowpea, owing to its high protein content (23–25%), drought tolerance and nitrogen-fixing ability, is an important crop in many developing nations (Singh and Singh, 2015; Devi et al., 2015). A pest insect complex in Africa causes severe damage to cowpea that can result in yield losses of up to 70% (Adati et al., 2008; Aliyu et al., 2007). Notable pest species include the legume pod borer (Marcua vitrata Fabricius), the cowpea aphid (Aphis craccivora Koch), the flower thrips (Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom), the cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus Fabricius) (a storage pest), and a complex of pod-sucking insects including the brown pod-sucking bug Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stäl (Coreidae), Clavigralla shadabi Dol- ling (Coreidae), and Riptortus dentipes Fabricius (Alydidae) (Koona et al., 2004; Soyelu et al., 2007; Dreyer and Baumgartner, 1994). The most damaging of the pod-sucking bugs, C. tomentosicollis (Hemiptera: Coreidae) can dramatically decrease yields in cowpea crops (Dreyer and Baumgartner, 1994; Jackai, 1990; Koona et al., 2002), with levels of damage ranging from 20–100% (Singh and Allen, 1980; Aliyu et al., 2007). Both nymphs and adults suck the sap from the pods causing premature pod drying and shriveling (Jackai et al., 2001). Pest man- agement efforts have included the planting of resistant cowpea varieties (Olatunde et al., 2007; Dabire-Binso et al., 2010), the use of botanical pesticides (Oparaeke, 2006a, 2006b) and biocontrol methods among others. The amount of genetic data available for C. tomentosicollis is sparse, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aggene.2017.07.002 Received 26 March 2017; Received in revised form 19 June 2017; Accepted 10 July 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: steele11@illinois.edu (L.D. Steele). Abbreviations: mitogenomes, mitochondrial genomes; C. tomentosicollis, Clavigralla tomentosicollis; ORF, Open Reading Frame; PCG, protein coding genes; tRNA, transfer ribonucleic acid; rRNA, ribosomal ribonucleic acid; lrRNA, large rRNA; srRNA, small rRNA; cox, cytochrome oxidase c subunit; nad, NADH Dehydrogenase subunit; ATP, atp synthase subunit; cytb, cytochrome b; PCR, polymerase chain reaction Agri Gene 5 (2017) 27–36 Available online 16 July 2017 2352-2151/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc. MARK