title: Comparison of chaetognath mitochondrial genomes and phylogenetical implications.
abstract: Two complete mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs) of chaetognaths, Spadella cephaloptera and Paraspadella gotoi, have been recently published. These genomes are highly unusual. They are the smallest metazoan mtDNAs so far known; atp6 and atp8 genes are missing; lastly, our reanalysis has evidenced that, contrarily to what has been previously published for one sequence, both contain a unique transfer RNA (tRNA(Met)) evidencing that both have the same gene content. Indeed, even if the gene order seems very different, two gene blocks are conserved. In addition, comparison of gene arrangement suggests phylogenetical relationships between chaetognaths and some lophotrochozoa like annelids and molluscs.
authors.affiliation: ER Biodiversity and Environment, Case 5, University of Provence, Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseilles Cedex 3, France. eric.faure@up.univ-mrs.fr
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Faure
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Casanova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D016678:Genome; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000235:genetics*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D012343:RNA, Transfer