Complete mitochondrial genome of the imperiled Trispot Darter (Etheostoma trisella)

Abstract

The Trispot Darter (Etheostoma trisella) is an imperiled small-bodied freshwater fish that inhabits headwaters of the upper Coosa River watershed in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of this species to develop non-invasive environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance protocols. A mitochondrial phylogenomic analysis reveals the Trispot Darter to have diverged from soon after the common ancestor of genus Etheostoma. The mitochondrial genome sequence of E. trisella is similar to other darter species in terms of GC content and gene order, but the sequence is sufficiently divergent to permit the design of species-specific eDNA primers.

Keywords

• etheostoma trisella
• percidae phylogeny
• mitochondrial genome
• mitogenome