The complete mitochondrial genome of an ectoparasitic monopisthocotylean fluke Benedenia hoshinai (Monogenea: Platyhelminthes)

Abstract

An exponential growth of mitochondrial genome information has brought significant progress in understanding the organismal phylogeny and mitochondrial genome evolution for many metazoans including platyhelminth groups. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome sequence for Benedenia hoshinai, an ectoparasitic monogenean species, and compared it with its congener Benedenia seriolae. The complete mitochondrial genome is 13,554 bp in length and contains 12 protein-coding genes (lacking the atp8 gene), 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes, all encoded in the same direction as found in all other platyhelminth species sequenced to date. The gene arrangement of B. hoshinai mtDNA is almost identical to B. seriolae, differing only by the translocation of trnT between cox1 and rrnL. It is unclear whether the shared position of trnT between B. hoshinai and Gyrodactylus represents evidence for their phylogenetic affinity; testing this hypothesis requires further mitogenomic evidence.

Keywords::

• Mitochondrial genome
• Benedenia hoshinai
• gene translocation
• Monogenea
• Platyhelminthes

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Research Grant of the Chungbuk National University in 2011.

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