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The mitochondrial genomes of the acoelomorph worms Paratomella rubra and Isodiametra pulchra

View ORCID ProfileHelen E Robertson, View ORCID ProfileFrançois Lapraz, Bernhard Egger, View ORCID ProfileMaximilian J Telford, View ORCID ProfilePhilipp H. Schiffer
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/103556
Helen E Robertson
1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
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François Lapraz
1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
2CNRS/UMR 7277, institut de Biologie Valrose, iBV, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Parc Valrose, Nice cedex 2, France (current address)
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Bernhard Egger
1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
3Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria (current address)
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Maximilian J Telford
1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
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Philipp H. Schiffer
1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
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Abstract

Acoels are small, ubiquitous, but understudied, marine worms with a very simple body plan. Their internal phylogeny is still in parts unresolved, and the position of their proposed phylum Xenacoelomorpha (Xenoturbella+Acoela) is still debated.

Here we describe mitochondrial genome sequences from two acoel species: Paratomella rubra and Isodiametra pulchra. The 14,954 nucleotide-long P. rubra sequence is typical for metazoans in size and gene content. The larger I. pulchra mitochondrial genome contains both ribosomal genes, 21 tRNAs, but only 11 protein-coding genes. We find evidence suggesting a duplicated sequence in the I. pulchra mitochondrial genome.

Mitochondrial sequences for both P. rubra and I. pulchra have a unique genome organisation in comparison to other published metazoan mitochondrial genomes. We found a large degree of protein-coding gene and tRNA overlap in P. rubra, with little non-coding sequence making the genome compact. Conversely, the I. pulchra mitochondrial genome has many long non-coding sequences between genes, likely driving the genome size expansion. Phylogenetic trees inferred from concatenated alignments of mitochondrial genes grouped the fast-evolving Acoela and Tunicata, almost certainly due to the systematic error of long branch attraction: a reconstruction artefact that is probably compounded by the fast substitution rate of mitochondrial genes in this taxon.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 26, 2017.
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The mitochondrial genomes of the acoelomorph worms Paratomella rubra and Isodiametra pulchra
Helen E Robertson, François Lapraz, Bernhard Egger, Maximilian J Telford, Philipp H. Schiffer
bioRxiv 103556; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/103556
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The mitochondrial genomes of the acoelomorph worms Paratomella rubra and Isodiametra pulchra
Helen E Robertson, François Lapraz, Bernhard Egger, Maximilian J Telford, Philipp H. Schiffer
bioRxiv 103556; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/103556

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