Abstract
The mitochondrial genome of the barnacle Striatobalanus amaryllis (Sessilia: family Archaeobalanidae) is 15,063 bp in length. All the 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiate with ATD codon (ATG, ATA or ATT). Four PCGs (COX3, ND3, ND4 and ND4L) end with incomplete stop codon (T- -). Four PCGs (ND1, ND4, ND4L and ND5) are encoded on the light strand (underlined below). Refer to the pancrustacean ground pattern, there are not less than seven tRNAs rearranged in the S. amaryllis mitochondrial genome, including tRNAAla, tRNAGlu/tRNASer(AGY), tRNAPro/tRNAThr, tRNAPro/tRNAThr, tRNATyr, tRNALys, tRNAGln and tRNACys. Three tRNAs (tRNALys, tRNAGln and tRNACys) are rearranged between S. amaryllis and Tetraclita japonica (Sessilia: Tetraclitidae), meanwhile one tRNA (tRNACys) inverted from one strand to another. Compared with Megabalanus volcano (Sessilia: Balanidae), an inversion of one large gene block is identified (including three PCGs and three tRNAs) in S. amaryllis mitochondrial genome: tRNAPhe-ND5-tRNAHis-ND4-ND4L-tRNAPro.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Cheung Kwok Chu for his crucial comments, and the Genomics BioSci and Tech, Taiwan for supporting the sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA of the present study.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article. This study was supported by the Hong Kong Scholars Program (XJ2012056) and the Career Development Award in Academia Sinica, Taiwan (AS-98-CDA-L15). Part of the study is supported by a grant in the National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC-99-2621-B-001-007-MY3).