The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the pantropical earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus (Rhinodrilidae, Clitellata): Mitogenome characterization and phylogenetic positioning

By

Conrado, Ana
Arruda, Hugo
Stanton, David W. G.
James, Samuel
Kille, Peter
Brown, George G. (George Gardner), 1969--
Da Silva, Elodie, 1987-
Dupont, Lise
Taheri, Shabnam
Morgan, Andrew John
Simoes, Nelson
Rodrigues, Armindo
Montiel, Rafael
Cunha, Luis

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

688

Pages

1-13

Subjects

Azores , earthworm , Mitochondria , mitochondrial genome , peregrine species , Pontoscolex corethrurus , Rhinodrilidae

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.688.13721

 

Abstract

Pontoscolex corethrurus (Müller, 1857) plays an important role in tropical soil ecosystems and has been widely used as an animal model for a large variety of ecological studies in particular due to its common presence and generally high abundance in human-disturbed tropical soils. In this study we describe the complete mitochondrial genome of the peregrine earthworm P. corethrurus. This is the first record of a mitochondrial genome within the Rhinodrilidae family. Its mitochondrial genome is 14 835 bp in length containing 37 genes (13 protein-coding genes (PCG) 2 rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes). It has the same gene content and structure as in other sequenced earthworms but unusual among invertebrates it hasseveral overlapping open reading frames. All genes are encoded on the same strand. Most of the PCGs use ATG as the start codon except for ND3 which uses GTG as the start codon. The A+T content of the mitochondrial genome is 59.9% (31.8% A 28.1% T 14.6% G and 25.6% for C). The annotated genome sequence has been deposited in GenBank under the accession number KT988053.