The complete mitochondrial genome of Acropora aculeus (cnidaria, scleractinia, acroporidae)

Whole genome assembly and annotation of the endangered Caribbean coral Acropora cervicornis

Coral species in the genus Acropora are key ecological components of coral reefs worldwide and represent the most diverse genus of scleractinian corals. While key species of Indo-Pacific Acropora have annotated genomes, no annotated genome has been published for either of the two species of Caribbean Acropora. Here we present the first fully annotated genome of the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis. We assembled and annotated this genome using high-fidelity nanopore long-read sequencing with gene annotations validated with mRNA sequencing. The assembled genome size is 318 Mb, with 28,059 validated genes. Comparative genomic analyses with other Acropora revealed unique features in A. cervicornis, including contractions in immune pathways and expansions in signaling pathways. Phylogenetic analysis confirms previous findings showing that A. cervicornis diverged from Indo-Pacific relatives around 41 million years ago, with the closure of the western Tethys Sea, prior to the primary radiation of Indo-Pacific Acropora. This new A. cervicornis genome enriches our understanding of the speciose Acropora and addresses evolutionary inquiries concerning speciation and hybridization in this diverse clade.

Complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of Pseudogastromyzon changtingensis (Osteichthyes: Gastromyzontidae)

Pseudogastromyzon changtingensis belonging to the family Gastromyzontidae is a good model for phylogeny and zoogeography research. In the present paper, the sequenced mitochondrial genome of P. changtingensis is of 16573 bp in length, and encodes 13 typical protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and one control region. The result of phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that P. changtingensis is close to that of P. fasciatus.