First report of the complete mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis of Aphrodita australis (Aphroditidae, Annelida)

Abstract

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of the Aphrodita australis was sequenced. The complete mitochondrial genome was circular and 15,288 bp in length, consisted of a typical set of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 1 non-coding control region. All these genes are in the heavy strand. The non-coding control region is 672 bp in length, and located between tRNA-Ser and tRNA-Leu. The overall nucleotides base composition of the heavy strand is 31.02% for A, 22.76% for C, 12.49% for G, and 33.73% for T, with a slight A + T-rich feature (64.75%). All of the PCGs begin with ATG as their start codon and the cox 3, cytb and nad 3 are terminated with TAA, atp8, nad4, nad 4l, and nad 6 are terminated with TAG, while others are terminated by incomplete codon T. Seen from the phylogenetic tree, A. australis has a more close relationship with Goniada japonica than other species.