Mitochondrial genome of the silky shark Carcharhinus falciformis from the British Indian Ocean Territory Marine Protected Area

Abstract

We present the first mitochondrial genome of Carcharhinus falciformis from the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Marine Protected Area (MPA). The mitochondrial genome of C. falciformis is 16,701 bp in length and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a non-coding control region (D-loop). GC content was at 40.1%. The control region was 1063 bp in length. The complete mitogenome sequence of C. falciformis from the BIOT MPA will enable improved conservation measures of the CITES listed species through studies of species distribution, population abundance, fishing pressure and wildlife trade.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• Chagos
• CITES
• fin-trade
• genomics

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Robert Edwards and Adrian Cantu for computing support, David Curnick, Danny Coffey, Tim White, Nathan Truelove, and David Jacoby for assistance in sample collection, and Theodore Reimer for sample organization and shipping logistics. .

Author contributions

SJ contributed to concept, sequencing, bioinformatics and wrote the manuscript with comments from ED, TC, RS and BB, TC and RS contributed to sample collection, ED provided laboratory support and BB contributed to concept of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data which support the findings of this study are openly accessible in Genbank with the reference accession number MN943498.1 at DOI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN943498.1.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Authors thank Stanford University and the Bertarelli Foundation for funding.