FIRST NEAR COMPLETE MITOGENOME OF THE RHIZOCEPHALAN PARASITE, Sacculina beauforti.
Gusti-Afiz G.R.N.*, Ismail NurulHayati., Fazhan H., Ikhwanuddin M., and Waiho K.

Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The genetic information of rhizocephalan^s parasite, especially its mitogenome, is important nowadays due to some reports of infection of the rhizocephalan^s parasite on the aquaculture crab species and other commercial crab species. Some of these parasite group is known to infect crustaceans and caused sterilization and damage to the gonad of the crabs. The parasite infection is species-specific which will cause a sudden outbreak if the infected organisms are accidentally introduced into aquaculture facilities. There is no reliable cure for this parasite up to now, the only solution is to mass killing all the infected crabs. Due to the limited information on these parasites, we sequenced for the first time the nearly complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the rhizocephalan parasite under the family Sacculinidae. The sequencing was made using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) rather than using the conventional method which needs the primers as the starter template of the sequencing. The nearly complete mitogenome is 15,380 bp for Sacculina beauforti, which consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and one major incomplete of the control region annotated using the online server. Comparative analysis of the order of the genes with other rhizocephalan showed a similar arrangement with other parasites from the same rhizocephalan group. Phylogenetic analysis of the 13 protein-coding genes showed a closed relationship based on the monophyletic clade observed between the parasites from the same family after adding the mitogenome of the copepods as the outgroups.

Keywords: rhizocephalan- mitogenome- sacculinidae- parasite

Topic: Marine and Fisheries Biotechnology