The complete mitochondrial genome of the deep-sea sponge Poecillastra laminaris (Astrophorida, Vulcanellidae)

Abstract

The complete mitochondrial genome of a New Zealand specimen of the deep-sea sponge Poecillastra laminaris (Sollas, 1886) (Astrophorida, Vulcanellidae), from the Colville Ridge, New Zealand, was sequenced using the 454 Life Science pyrosequencing system. To identify homologous mitochondrial sequences, the 454 reads were mapped to the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Geodia neptuni (GeneBank No. NC_006990). The P. laminaris genome is 18,413 bp in length and includes 14 protein-coding genes, 24 transfer RNA genes and 2 ribosomal RNA genes. Gene order resembled that of other demosponges. The base composition of the genome is A (29.1%), T (35.2%), C (14.0%) and G (21.7%). This is the second published mitogenome for a sponge of the order Astrophorida and will be useful in future phylogenetic analysis of deep-sea sponges.

• Astrophorida
• deep-sea sponge
• mitogenome
• Poecillastra laminaris
• porifera

Acknowledgements

Specimens were supplied by the NIWA Invertebrate Collection (NIC). The specimen was collected by NIWA during the Nascent Inter-Ridge Volcanic And Neotectonic Activity (NIRVANA, TAN1213) voyage, funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, in collaboration with Auckland University, GNS Science (New Zealand), and the University of New Hampshire (USA) and with funding from the program ‘Impact of resource use on vulnerable deep-sea communities’ project (CO1X0906), funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. We thank the scientists and crew of the NIWA research voyage TAN1213 who collected the sponge specimen; Ashley Rowden and Malcolm Clark’s (both of NIWA) comments and suggestions improved this manuscript.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. We are particularly grateful to Sadie Mills and Kareen Schnabel for their diligent assistance with loans. The work was supported by funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment as part of the NIWA-led project “Predicting the occurrence of vulnerable marine ecosystems for planning spatial management in the South Pacific region” (CO1X1229). This research was also funded by NIWA under Coasts and Oceans Research Programme 2 Marine Biological Resources: Discovery and definition of the marine biota of New Zealand (2014/2015 SCI).