The complete mitochondrial genome of the American lobster, Homarus americanus (Crustacea, Decapoda)

Abstract

Although relatively a large number of the complete mitochondrial genome sequences have been determined from various decapod species (29 mtDNA sequences reported so far), the information for the infraorder Astacidea (including lobsters, crayfishes, and their relatives) is very limited and represented by only one complete sequence from the Australian freshwater crayfish species Cherax destructor. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of Homarus americanus, the first representative of the family Nephropidae to be fully characterized. Comparison of the gene arrangement reveals that H. americanus mtDNA is identical to those of other pancrustacean species but differs from the other astacidean species (C. destructor). Based on these data, it can be assumed that an idiosyncratic gene order discovered in C. destructor mtDNA may be secondarily acquired from the ancestral lineage of the Astacidea.

Keywords::

• American lobster
• Astacidea
• complete mitochondrial genome
• Homarus americanus

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Human Frontier Science Program postdoctoral fellowship (LT00385/2007-L) (S. Kim), the Basic Research Program of KOPRI (PE10060) (H.-G. Choi.), NRF grant funded by the Korean Government (2007-0052998) (J.-K. Park), and the Polar Academic Program (PAP) of KOPRI (G.-S. Min).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.