Abstract
Complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of a worm-hunting cone snail, Conus quercinus, was reported in this study. Its mitogenome, the longest one (16,460 bp) among reported Conus specie, is composed of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and one D-loop region. The mitochondrial gene arrangement is highly-conserved and identical to other reported. However, the D-loop region of C. quercinus is the longest (943 bp) with the higher A+T content (71.3%) and a long AT tandem repeat stretch (68 bp). Subsequent phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that three different dietary types (vermivorous, molluscivorous and piscivorous) of cone snails are clustered separately, suggesting that the phylogenetics of cone snails is related to their dietary types. In conclusion, our current work improves our understanding of the mitogenomic structure and evolutionary status of the vermivorous C. quercinus, which support the putative hypothesis that the Conus ancestor was vermivorous.
Highlights
Cone snails (Conus spp.), a species-rich genus of venomous marine gastropods, produce a complex of conotoxins for prey capture and defense
Eight transfer RNA (tRNA) genes are encoded on the light (L) strand, whereas the other genes are located on the heavy (H) strand (Table 1)
We used other nine publically available Conus mitogenomes to illustrate the structure of C. quercinus mitogenome and investigated the evolutionary relationships among Conus species
Summary
Cone snails (Conus spp.), a species-rich genus of venomous marine gastropods, produce a complex of conotoxins for prey capture and defense. They are usually classified into fish-hunting (piscivorous), snail-hunting (molluscivorous) and worm-hunting (vermivorous) groups [1,2,3]. The number of piscivorous species is the least, while these snails are assessed as deadly to humans. A larger number of molluscivorous species is dangerous, some snails have been implicated in unconfirmed fatalities. The vermivorous species account for 70% of the Conus genus, while they seem to be nonthreatening [2,3,4].
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