title: Comparative Mitogenomics of Leeches (Annelida: Clitellata): Genome Conservation and Placobdella-Specific trnD Gene Duplication.
abstract: Mitochondrial DNA sequences, often in combination with nuclear markers and morphological data, are frequently used to unravel the phylogenetic relationships, population dynamics and biogeographic histories of a plethora of organisms. The information provided by examining complete mitochondrial genomes also enables investigation of other evolutionary events such as gene rearrangements, gene duplication and gene loss. Despite efforts to generate information to represent most of the currently recognized groups, some taxa are underrepresented in mitochondrial genomic databases. One such group is leeches (Annelida: Hirudinea: Clitellata). Herein, we expand our knowledge concerning leech mitochondrial makeup including gene arrangement, gene duplication and the evolution of mitochondrial genomes by adding newly sequenced mitochondrial genomes for three bloodfeeding species: Haementeria officinalis, Placobdella lamothei and Placobdella parasitica. With the inclusion of three new mitochondrial genomes of leeches, a better understanding of evolution for this organelle within the group is emerging. We found that gene order and genomic arrangement in the three new mitochondrial genomes is identical to previously sequenced members of Clitellata. Interestingly, within Placobdella, we recovered a genus-specific duplication of the trnD gene located between cox2 and atp8. We performed phylogenetic analyses using 12 protein-coding genes and expanded our taxon sampling by including GenBank sequences for 39 taxa; the analyses confirm the monophyletic status of Clitellata, yet disagree in several respects with other phylogenetic hypotheses based on morphology and analyses of non-mitochondrial data.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Helmintología, Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.|Research Collaborator, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of Natural History, Washington D. C., United States of America.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oceguera-Figueroa
authors.affiliation: Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46008, Paterna, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manzano-Marín
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C6, Canada.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kvist
authors.affiliation: Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46008, Paterna, Valencia, Spain.|Área de Genómica y Salud de la Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunidad Valenciana (FISABIO), Avenida de Catalunya 21, 46020, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moya
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY, 10024, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Siddall
authors.affiliation: Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46008, Paterna, Valencia, Spain.|Área de Genómica y Salud de la Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunidad Valenciana (FISABIO), Avenida de Catalunya 21, 46020, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Latorre
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003062:Codon; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020440:Gene Duplication; D023061:Gene Order; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D007865:Leeches / Q000235:genetics*; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D012343:RNA, Transfer
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D012343:RNA, Transfer