The complete mitogenome sequence of a cave loach Triplophysa rosa (Teleostei, Balitoridae, Nemacheilinae)

Abstract

China is very rich in cavefishes and some detailed studies on their taxonomy and biology have been carried out, but many other aspects such as genetics and evolution need further investigation. Here, we sequenced the complete mitogenome sequence of the Rose Blind Plateau Loach, Triplophysa rosa, and combined with other 27 ostariophysan complete mitogenome sequences, the phylogenetic position of T. rosa was estimated. The 16,585 bp mitogenome of T. rosa was a typical vertebrate mitochondrial genome containing 13 protein-coding, 2 rRNA, 22 tRNA genes, and 1 control region (CR). The CR of T. rosa was characterized by one termination-associated sequence and seven conserved sequence blocks (CSB-B, D, E, F, and CSB I, II, III). Phylogenetic analyses showed that T. rosa belongs to the subfamily Nemacheilinae and formed a sister-group relationship with the genus Barbatula. Further analyses based on the concatenated mitochondrial cyt b and D-loop sequences showed that T. rosa clustered with other Triplophysa species, and it was located in the basal position within the genus. In addition, the molecular clock estimations showed that T. rosa might have diverged from other Triplophysa species at about 48.3 million years ago during the rapid uplift period of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Keywords::

• Cavefish
• Triplophysa rosa
• mitogenome
• molecular clock

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Junxing Yang (Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for letting us examine type specimens under his care. We are grateful to Mr Steven Grant for his suggestions and revisions of our paper.

Declarations of interest: This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30700072, 31071903), the National Basic Research (973) special preliminary study program (2010CB134405), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2011B010). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.