Characterization of mitochondrial genome of the freshwater stingray Potamotrygon leopoldi from Xingu River, Amazon, Brazil
The study characterized the mitogenome of Potamotrygon leopoldi, this species is commonly referred to as the &quot;white blotched stingray&quot;, which is a member of the Potamotrygonidae family that are an extant group of stingrays that live exclusively in freshwater environments. P. leopoldi are exploited by the commercial fisheries, and this causes a big impact in the populations. We used PacBio long-read sequencing to assess the complete mitogenome of P. leopoldi and perform a comparative investigation in molecular evolution. The mitogenome has 17,504bp, containing 13 protein-coding, 22 tRNA, and 2 rRNA genes. The average of the composition in the mitogenome was A: 32.32%, T: 24.41%, C: 12.84%, G: 30.42% with an AT content of 56.73%. The values of AT and GC skewness were 0.13 and -0.40. Our phylogenetic analyses with mitogenome sequences elasmobranch species supports the monophyly for Potamotrygonidae family and indicates a close relationship to the Dasyatidae family. We detected various amino acid sites under positive selection exclusively in P. leopoldi. This extensive comparative mitogenomic investigation offers novel and significant insights into the evolutionary lineage of neotropical freshwater stingrays. It stands as an indispensable resource for facilitating ongoing and prospective investigations into the molecular evolution of elasmobranchs.