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Comparative mitogenomics of Brachiopods reveals conservatism in articulate species and unusualness in inarticulate species

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Abstract

Background

Brachiopods are a phylum of marine invertebrates with over 10,000 fossil species. Today, there are fewer than 500 extant species assigned to the class Articulata or Inarticulata and for which knowledge of evolutionary genetics and genomics is still poor. Until now, complete mitogenome sequences of two inarticulate species and four articulate species were available.

Methods and Results

The complete mitogenome of the inarticulate brachiopod species Lingula reevii (20,778 bp) was obtained by using next generation sequencing. It contains 12 protein-coding genes (the annotation of atp8 is unsure), two ribosomal RNA genes, 26 transfer RNA genes, and one supernumerary ORF that is also conserved in the inarticulate species Lingula anatina. It is hypothesized that this ORF could represent a Lingula-specific mtORFan gene (without obvious homology to other genes). Comparative mitogenomics indicate the mitochondrial gene order of L. reevii is unique among brachiopods, and that compared to articulate species, inarticulate species exhibit massive mitogenome rearrangements, deviant ATP8 protein sequences and supernumerary ORFs, possibly representing species- or lineage-specific mtORFan genes.

Conclusion

The results of this study enrich genetics knowledge of extant brachiopods, which may eventually help to test hypotheses about their decline.

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Data availability

The mitochondrial genome sequence is available from the NCBI GenBank database under accession number OR906209.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks D. Guerra for assistance with lab experiments.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) [RGPIN-2019–04076] to S. Br. S. Br. holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Mitochondrial Evolutionary Biology.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Sophie Breton

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SB contributed to the study conception and design. Specimen collection and identification were performed by staff of Waikiki Aquarium (Hawaii, USA). Data curation, analysis, representation and writing were performed by SB.

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Correspondence to Sophie Breton.

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Breton, S. Comparative mitogenomics of Brachiopods reveals conservatism in articulate species and unusualness in inarticulate species. Mol Biol Rep 51, 298 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-024-09270-6

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