Complete mitochondrial genomes of two sand diver species (Perciformes, Trichonotidae): novel gene orders and phylogenetic position within Gobiiformes

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome sequences of two species of the family Trichonotidae, Trichonotus elegans (Shimada and Yoshino ) and Trichonotus filamentosus (Steindachner ), were determined using a polymerase chain reaction-based method. The genomes ranged from 16,517 to 17,235 bp in length and included 37 genes (13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNA genes) and two non-coding regions (control region and origin of the light strand replication) as in other vertebrates. However, they shared a unique gene order among vertebrates with multiple gene switching and insertions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Trichonotidae and Apogonidae are sister groups, which together with Kurtidae are placed as a closely related clade of Gobioidei. These results would be useful for analyzing the evolutionary relationships of Gobiiformes and the evolutionary study of fish mitogenomes.

Keywords

• trichonotidae
• gobiiformes
• mitogenome
• gene rearrangements
• phylogeny