title: Complete mitochondrial genome of the sandfish Holothuria scabra (Holothuroidea, Holothuriidae).
abstract: The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of Holothuria scabra, an economically and ecologically important tropical sea cucumber, was first sequenced and annotated. The mitochondrial DNA is 15,779 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a 456 bp putative control region, of which gene order is identical to the echinoderm ground pattern. Comparative analyses between H. scabra and other holothurians revealed three new findings: (1) the mitogenome of H. scabra is highly compact having five regions with overlapping genes and least intergenic nucleotides among the sequenced holothurians, only accounting for 3.58% of its mitogenome; (2) the genus Holothuria mitogenomes show a pattern of high interspecies divergence at the 13 PCGs, and the genetic p-distance reaches 25.68% between H. scabra and H. forskali; (3) the incomplete stop codon T of cox2 shared with H. forskali may be a common feature in the genus Holothuria.
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Jianjun
authors: J
authors: Xia
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Chunhua
authors: C
authors: Ren
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Zonghe
authors: Z
authors: Yu
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Xiangyun
authors: X
authors: Wu
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Qian
authors: a Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou , China.
authors: Chaoqun
authors: C
authors: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D023061:Gene Order; D059646:Genome Size; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D047332:Holothuria / Q000235:genetics*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012343:RNA, Transfer
keywords: Incomplete stop codon; intergenic region; interspecies divergence; mitochondrial DNA