The complete mitochondrial genome of Chinese rare minnow, Gobiocypris rarus (Teleostei: Cypriniformes)

Abstract

The Chinese rare minnow, Gobiocypris rarus, which is endemic to China, is an attractive aquatic laboratory animal in China. In the present study, the complete mitogenome sequence of G. rarus has been determined using long polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. It was 16,601 bp in length and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region, the gene composition and order of which are similar to most other vertebrates. Except for eight tRNA and ND6 genes, all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. The overall base composition of the heavy strand is 29.5% A, 27.6% T, 25.7% C, and 17.2% G, with a slight AT bias of 57.1%. There are 10 regions of gene overlap totaling 27 bp and 13 intergenic spacer regions totaling 63 bp. The mitogenome sequence of G. rarus could contribute to a better solution of its phylogenetic position within cyprinid fishes based on the whole mitogenomic data.

Keywords::

• Chinese rare minnow
• Cypriniformes
• aquatic laboratory animal
• mitogenome

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Xinyan Liu and Dandan Xu for their assistance with the laboratory work.

Declarations of interest: This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31071903), Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (CSTC, 2010BB1015), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2011B010), and a start-up grant from Southwest University (SWU109030). The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.