The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Terapon jarbua (Centrarchiformes: Terapontidae) and Comparative Analysis of the Control Region among Eight Centrarchiformes Species

Abstract

In this article, we determined and described the complete mitochondrial genome of Terapon jarbua, which is 16 664 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, one origin of replication on the light-strand (OL), and a putative control region (CR). The gene order and the base composition of T. jarbua mitogenome are similar to that of most other vertebrates. The overall base composition is 27.5% A, 26.0% T, 29.9% C, 16.6% G, respectively, with a slight AT bias (53.5%). All the protein-coding genes use the initiation codon ATG except COI use GTG. Most of them have TAA or TAG as the stop codon, except COII and ND4 use AGA, COIII and Cyt b use an incomplete stop codon TA and T, respectively. In order to further explore the structure of CR in Centrarchiformes, eight CR sequences from representative species were compared. Like that of other teleosts, the CR of the Centrarchiformes is also partitioned into three domains, including the termination associated sequence (TAS), the central conserved sequence blocks (CSB-E, D, B and A), and the conserved sequence blocks (CSB-2 and 3). We hope these results will provide consensus sequences of the conserved units of the CR in Centrarchiformes genomes, as well as useful molecular information for phylogenetic studies of Centrarchiformes.