MITOGENOME ANNOUNCEMENT

Mitochondrial genome of the American shad Alosa sapidissima

YAN HUI BI & XIAO WU CHEN

College of Fisheries and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, People’s Republic of China

(Received 9 November 2010; revised 7 December 2010; accepted 29 December 2010)

AbstractThe complete mitochondrial genome of Alosa sapidissima has been determined. The total length of the mitogenome was16,697 bp and had a gene content (13 protein-coding, 22 tRNAs and 2 rRNAs. Except for the seven tRNA and Nd6 genes,all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. The overall base composition of the heavy strand is 28.3% A,24.8% T, 28.9% C, 17.9% G, with an AT content of 53.1%. The DNA sequence of Alosa. sapidissima shared 97.1, 93.9,88.8 and 82.3% sequence identity with that of Alosa alosa, Alosa pseudoharengus. Molecular data here presented provide auseful toll for evolutionary as well as population genetic studied.

Keywords: Alosa sapidissima, Tenualosa reevesii, mitogenome

In the present study, we determined the complete

mitochondrial genome of an American shad imported

from America, Alosa sapidissima (Teleostomi,

Teleostei, Clupeidae, Alosa). The DNA sequence was

submitted to GenBank with accession number

HQ331537. Primers were designed according to the

mitochondrial genome sequence of Alosa alosa

(GenBank accession number: NC_009575) and were

used for long-range PCRs.

The complete mitochondrial genome (16,697 bp in

length) consists of 13 protein coding, 22 tRNA genes

and two rRNA genes, and a displacement loop

(D loop) locus (Table I). Except for the seven tRNA

and Nd6 genes, all other mitochondrial genes are

encoded on the heavy strand. The overall base

composition of the heavy strand is 28.3% A, 24.8%

T, 28.9% C, 17.9% G, with an AT content of 53.1%.

The AT content exceeded the GC content, as

generally seen in other vertebrate mitochondrial

genomes (Lee et al. 2008). ClustalW 2.0 (Larkin et al.

2007) was used for sequence alignment. The

sequence alignment showed that A. sapidissima

shared 97.1, 93.9, 88.8 and 82.3% sequence identity

with A. alosa, Alosa pseudoharengus (Lavoue et al.

2007), Brevoortia tyrannus and Ethmalosa fimbriata

(Lavoue et al. 2007).

Alosa sapidissima is distributed mainly in North

America and is now found in Cook Inlet, Alaska to

Baja California in Mexico, and the Kamchatka

Peninsula in Russia (Scott and Crossman 1973).

It was imported to China and was used to substitute

the endangered Chinese shad (Tenualosa reevesii) in

recent years (Jia et al. 2009). Tenualosa reevesii is one

of China’s most famous fishes commercialized for

food. Prior to the 1970s, it was a valuable component

of the fishery economy of the Yangtze, Pearl, and

Qiantang rivers. Yet today it verges on extinction

(Wang and Richard 1997). The environmental and

habitat requirements as well as the biological traits of

American shad make it a successful invader in

Chinese freshwater ecosystems. Its invasion constitu-

tes potentially an unpredictable ecological threat (Jia

et al. 2007). We expect the present study to contribute

ISSN 1940-1736 print/ISSN 1940-1744 online q 2011 Informa UK, Ltd.

DOI: 10.3109/19401736.2010.551659

Correspondence: X. W. Chen, College of Fisheries and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, People’s Republic ofChina. Tel: þ 86 21 61900437. Fax: þ 86 21 61900424. E-mail: xwchen@shou.edu.cn

Mitochondrial DNA, February–April 2011; 22(1–2): 9–11

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to the preservation of the endangered species’ genetic

resources and to assist in species identification.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Shanghai Huapeng fish farm

for providing the tissue sample of A. sapidissima. They

also appreciate the valuable comments of the editor on

this work. This research was supported by the

Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (no.

S30701), and the Excellent Youth Scholars of Science

and Technology Commission of Shanghai Munici-

pality (no. SSC-07003).

Declarations of interest: The authors report no

conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible

for the content and writing of the paper.

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Table I. Characteristics of the mitochondrial genome of A. sapidissima.

Codon

Locus From To Length (bp) Start Stop Intergenic nucleotides* Strand†

tRNAPhe 1 69 69 0 H

12S rRNA 70 1021 952 0 H

tRNAVal 1022 1093 72 0 H

16S rRNA 1094 2777 1684 0 H

tRNALeu 2778 2854 77 0 H

Nd1 2855 3829 975 ATG TAG 8 H

tRNAIle 3838 3909 72 21 H

tRNAGln 3909 3979 69 21 L

tRNAMet 3979 4047 69 0 H

Nd2 4048 5094 1047 ATG T- 22 H

tRNATrp 5093 5164 72 1 H

tRNAAla 5166 5234 69 0 L

tRNAAsn 5235 5308 74 1 L

tRNACys 5340 5405 66 2 L

tRNATyr 5408 5478 71 1 L

Cox1 5480 7030 1551 GTG TAA 0 H

tRNASer 7031 7101 71 3 L

tRNAAsp 7105 7173 69 12 H

Cox2 7186 7875 690 ATG T- 1 H

tRNALys 7877 7950 74 1 H

Atp8 7952 8119 168 ATG TAA 210 H

Atp6 8110 8793 684 ATG TA- 21 H

Cox3 8793 9578 786 ATG TA- 21 H

tRNAGly 9578 9649 72 0 H

Nd3 9650 10,000 351 ATG T- 22 H

tRNAArg 9999 10,068 70 0 H

Nd4L 10,069 10,365 297 ATG TAA 27 H

Nd4 10,359 11,738 1380 ATG ACT 1 H

tRNAHis 11,740 11,808 69 0 H

tRNASer 11,809 11,875 67 0 H

tRNALeu 11,876 11,947 72 0 H

Nd5 11,948 13,783 1836 ATG TAA 24 H

Nd6 13,780 14,301 522 ATG TAG 0 L

tRNAGlu 14,302 14,370 69 6 L

Cytb 14,375 15,514 1140 ATG ACT 1 H

tRNAThr 15,516 15,587 72 21 H

tRNAPro 15,587 15,656 70 0 L

CR2 15,657 16,697 1041 0 H

Notes: *Numbers correspond to the nucleotides separating different genes. Negative numbers indicate overlapping nucleotides between

adjacent genes; † H and L indicate genes transcribed on the heavy and light strand, respectively.

Y. H. Bi and X. W. Chen10

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