The mitogenomes of two species of sea pigs, Scotoplanes clarki and Protelpidia murrayi (Elasipodida: Holothuroidea: Echinodermata)

Abstract

Mitochondrial genomes of Scotoplanes clarki and Protelpidia murrayi are presented, each with 13 protein coding genes, two rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes. That of Scotoplanes clarki has 15,909 base pairs and that of Protelpidia murrayi is 15,896 base pairs. There is a suspected tandem repeat region of undetermined length in the assemblies of both Scotoplanes clarki and Protelpidia murrayi. The gene order of both mitogenomes is identical to that of other Elasipodida. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Protelpidia murrayi lies within the Scotoplanes clade, suggesting that Scotoplanes is paraphyletic. Sequencing of the type species, Scotoplanes globosa, is needed to confirm if Protelpidia murrayi should be renamed as Scotoplanes murrayi.

Keywords

• Sea cucumber
• Elpidiidae
• phylogeny
• deep sea
• taxonomy