Abstract
We present the complete mitochondrial genome of the three-spot grouper Epinephelus trimaculatus (16,761 bp) in this study. The gene order and orientation in E. trimaculatus were the same as the typical vertebrates. The COI and ND4 genes started with the GTG codon and the ATP6 gene started with the CTG codon, the remaining protein-coding genes started with the ATG codon. All protein-coding genes used the TAA or incomplete T as the stop codon. A 41 bp sequence was identified as the origin of L-strand replication (OL) between tRNA-Asn and tRNA-Cys genes. The tRNA-Ser2 lost the dihydrouridine (DHU) arm and formed one loop. A tandem repeat motif (5′-AAATACATAATATGCTTT-3′) and three conserved sequence blocks (CSB1-3) were found in the control region.