Complete mitochondrial genome of the speckled dace Rhinichthys osculus, a widely distributed cyprinid minnow of western North America

Abstract

The speckled dace Rhinichthys osculus (order Cypriniformes), also known as the carpita pinta, is a small cyprinid minnow native to western North America. Here, we report the sequencing of the full mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of R. osculus from a male fish collected from the Amargosa River Canyon in eastern California, USA. The assembled mitogenome is 16 658 base pair (bp) nucleotides, and encodes 13 protein-coding genes, and includes both a 12S and a 16S rRNA, 22 tRNAs, and a 985 bp D-loop control region. Mitogenome synteny reflects that of other Ostariophysian fishes with the majority of genes and RNAs encoded on the heavy strand (H-strand) except nd6, tRNA^-Gln, tRNA^-Ala, tRNA^-Asn, tRNA^-Cys, tRNA^-Tyr, tRNA^-Ser, tRNA^-Glu, and tRNA^-Pro. The availability of this R. osculus mitochondrial genome – the first complete mitogenome within the lineage of Rhinichthys riffle daces – provides a foundation for resolving evolutionary relationships among morphologically differentiated populations of R. osculus.

Keywords:

• Cyprinidae
• Cypriniformes
• Leuciscinae
• mitogenome
• mtDNA

Declaration of interest

This research was supported by the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) and by the Cal Poly Frost Scholar program. The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest and are solely responsible for the content and writing of this manuscript.